Data storage recovery automation

ABSTRACT

According to certain aspects, systems and methods are provided for automating recovery of a networked data storage environment. For instance, a system can generate a data recovery package configured to automatically carry out a process for recovering a data storage environment and/or associated data. The content of the particular workflow depends on the data storage environment, and can be defined by a user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/013,763, filed on Feb. 2, 2016, entitled DATA STORAGE RECOVERYAUTOMATION, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/788,846, filed on Mar. 7, 2013, entitled DATA STORAGE RECOVERYAUTOMATION, which claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e)to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/618,579, filed on Mar. 30,2012, entitled DATA STORAGE RECOVERY AUTOMATION, each of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Any and allapplications for which a foreign or domestic priority claim isidentified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the presentapplication are incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57 and made apart of this specification.

BACKGROUND

Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their data andseek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored ontheir computer networks while minimizing impact on productivity.Protecting information is often part of a routine process that isperformed within an organization.

A company might back up critical computing systems such as databases,file servers, web servers, and so on as part of a daily, weekly, ormonthly maintenance schedule. The company may similarly protectcomputing systems used by each of its employees, such as those used byan accounting department, marketing department, engineering department,and so forth.

Given the rapidly expanding volume of data under management, companiesalso continue to seek innovative techniques for managing data growth, inaddition to protecting data. For instance, companies often implementmigration techniques for moving data to lower cost storage over time anddata reduction techniques for reducing redundant data, pruning lowerpriority data, etc.

Enterprises also increasingly view their stored data as a valuableasset. Along these lines, customers are looking for solutions that notonly protect and manage, but also leverage their data. For instance,solutions providing data analysis capabilities, improved datapresentation and access features, and the like, are in increasingdemand.

SUMMARY

In view of the above, companies often create copies of production data,and access the copies for recovery purposes. The recovery copies can beaccessed in the event that one or more components in the data storageenvironment fail or otherwise become unavailable, such as in the eventof a natural disaster or other scenario. For instance, the data may becopied to a recovery site that is remote from the production site ordata center.

In addition to recovering the data, it is often also desirable torecover the data storage environment itself or portions thereof. Thus,in accordance with certain embodiments, the data storage systemmaintains copies of metadata or other information representing aspectsof the data storage environment. This information can include, forexample, the number and type of components in the environment, thetopology of the data storage environment or portions thereof,configuration parameters associated with the data storage environment,and the like. Then, the recovery information can be used to rebuild thedata storage environment and/or recovery data. The process can be usednot only to recover from a disaster or other event, but for otherpurposes, such as for testing or compliance.

Given the complexity of modern data storage systems, the recoveryprocess can often be correspondingly complex and time consuming. Forinstance, a system administrator or other employee may be sent to arecovery site to manually carry out the numerous steps involved inrecovering the data. And the administrator may manually enter commandsfor, without limitation, accessing recovery copies, installing andconfiguring data storage components, programs, file systems, recoveringand restoring data, etc. Depending on the size and complexity of thedata storage environment, this process can be time consuming andinefficient. Moreover, in order to successfully implement recovery, theadministrator often has a relatively high level of expertise andfamiliarity with the subject data storage system.

Thus, according to certain aspects, systems and methods are provided forautomating recovery of a networked data storage environment. Forinstance, a system can generate a data recovery package configured toautomatically carry out an automation workflow for recovering a datastorage environment and/or associated data. The content of theparticular workflow depends on the data storage environment, and can bedefined by a user.

A data storage environment can exist on a first set of computer hardwaredevices, for example. The automation package can be configured, uponexecution, to cause at least a portion of a source data storageenvironment and/or associated data at a production site to be replicatedonto another set of computer hardware devices located, for example, at arecovery site that is remote from the production site.

In some embodiments, an interface is provided allowing a user toconstruct a pre-configured recovery flow. The interface can be agraphical user interface (GUI) including intuitive drag and dropfunctionality, for example. For instance, the interface can display aset of icons representative of corresponding operations and associatedwith underlying executable instructions. The user can select icons forinclusion in the automation process, and the system can then generatethe recovery package based on the user-constructed automation flow. Insome cases, the same or a similar GUI can also be used to execute therecovery package. In some cases, multiple recovery packages aregenerated. For instance, the user may wish to create several automationpackages, each of which is intended to perform targeted, automatedrecovery of different portions of the data storage environment. Orseparate automation packages may be created for each of a plurality datastorage environments (e.g., multiple production sites). Each recoveryautomation package can be stored as a separate file, selectable forexecution using the automation interface.

According to certain embodiments, a method is provided for automatingrecovery of a networked data storage environment. The method includesreceiving an indication of user selection of a plurality of commands forinclusion in a data storage recovery automation package. The methodfurther includes generating, at a first point in time and by a firstcomputing device, the automated data recovery package, the recoveryautomation package configured, upon execution, to recover at least aportion of a data storage environment implemented on a first set ofcomputer hardware devices to a second set of computer hardware devicesthat is remote from the first set of computer hardware devices. Themethod also includes storing the automated recovery package on firststorage. The automated data recovery package is, at a second point intime later than the first point in time, accessed from the first storageand invoked for execution on a second computing device that is remotefrom the first computing device. Execution of the data recovery packagecauses automatic execution the plurality of commands to completion.

According to certain embodiments, a computer system is providedincluding one or more first computer processors and first storage mediahaving a database stored thereon which includes a set of recoveryautomation commands. The computer system includes a recovery automationinterface executing in the one or more first computer processors andconfigured to receive an indications of user selection of a plurality ofthe recovery automation commands for inclusion in an automated recoveryprocess in which at least a portion of a data storage environmentimplemented on a first set of computer hardware devices is recovered ona second set of computer hardware devices that is remote from the firstset of computer hardware devices. The system further includes a recoveryautomation module executing in the one or more computer processors andconfigured to generate, at a first point in time, an automated datarecovery package comprising a representation of the selected commands.The automated data recovery package is, at a second point in time laterthan the first point in time, accessed from storage media and invokedfor execution on one or more second computer processors that are remotefrom the one or more first computer processors. Execution of the datarecovery package causes automatic execution the plurality of commands tocompletion.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, a method of automatingrecovery of a data storage environment. The method includes receiving anindication of user selection of a plurality of commands for inclusion ina recovery automation package, the recovery automation packageconfigured, upon execution, to recover at least a portion of a datastorage environment implemented on a first set of computer hardwaredevices. The method also includes generating, at a first point in timeand by a first computing device, an automated data recovery packagecomprising a representation of the selected commands. The methodincludes storing the automated recovery package on first storage. Theautomated data recovery package is, at a second point in time later thanthe first point in time, accessed from the first storage and invoked forexecution. Execution of the data recovery package causes automaticexecution the plurality of commands.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, a method ofperforming automated recovery of a data storage system. The methodincludes accessing, from storage media, and using one or moreprocessors, a data recovery automation package comprising a plurality ofcommands for recovering at least a portion of a data storage environmentimplemented on a first set of one or more computer hardware devices, thedata recovery automation package generated at a first point in timeearlier than a second point in time at which said accessing occurs. Themethod also includes automatically performing, using one or morecomputer processors, a first command of the plurality of commands byinstalling a first data storage component that was installed on at leastone computing device in the first set of computer hardware devices on atleast one computing device in a second set of one or more computerhardware devices. The method further includes automatically performing,using one or more computer processors, a second command of the pluralityof commands by using the first data storage component to copy at least aportion of a data store onto one or more storage devices in the secondset of one or more computer hardware devices, the data store includingproduction data generated by at least one application running on atleast one client computing device in the first set of one or morecomputer hardware devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a secondarystorage device, and some examples of primary data and secondary copydata.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information management systemincluding a storage manager, one or more data agents, and one or moremedia agents.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations according to anexemplary storage policy.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example storage system configured toimplement automated data storage recovery.

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate the generation and execution of a recoveryautomation package according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates example recovery metadata that can be used to recovera data storage environment or portions thereof.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example recovery automation package.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are described herein for implementing recovery ofdata in a data storage system. Examples of such systems and methods arediscussed in further detail herein, e.g., with respect to FIGS. 2-5.Data recovery (e.g., automated disaster recovery) may additionally beimplemented by information management systems such as those that willnow be described with respect to FIGS. 1A-1E. And, as will be described,the componentry for implementing the data recovery techniques describedherein can be incorporated into and implemented by such systems.

Information Management System Overview

With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging data,organizations simply cannot afford to take the risk of losing criticaldata. Moreover, runaway data growth and other modern realities makeprotecting and managing data an increasingly difficult task. There istherefore a need for efficient, powerful, and user-friendly solutionsfor protecting and managing data.

Depending on the size of the organization, there are typically many dataproduction sources which are under the purview of tens, hundreds, oreven thousands of employees or other individuals. In the past,individual employees were sometimes responsible for managing andprotecting their data. A patchwork of hardware and software pointsolutions have been applied in other cases. These solutions were oftenprovided by different vendors and had limited or no interoperability.

Certain embodiments described herein provide systems and methods capableof addressing these and other shortcomings of prior approaches byimplementing unified, organization-wide information management. FIG. 1Ashows one such information management system 100, which generallyincludes combinations of hardware and software configured to protect andmanage data and metadata generated and used by the various computingdevices in the information management system 100.

The organization which employs the information management system 100 maybe a corporation or other business entity, non-profit organization,educational institution, household, governmental agency, or the like.

Generally, the systems and associated components described herein may becompatible with and/or provide some or all of the functionality of thesystems and corresponding components described in one or more of thefollowing U.S. patents and patent application publications assigned toCommVault Systems, Inc., each of which is hereby incorporated in itsentirety by reference herein:

-   -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2010-0332456, entitled “DATA OBJECT STORE AND        SERVER FOR A CLOUD STORAGE ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING DATA        DEDUPLICATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT ACROSS MULTIPLE CLOUD STORAGE        SITES”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled “MODULAR BACKUP AND RETRIEVAL        SYSTEM USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A STORAGE AREA NETWORK”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled “HIERARCHICAL SYSTEMS AND        METHODS FOR PROVIDING A UNIFIED VIEW OF STORAGE INFORMATION”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled “HIERARCHICAL BACKUP AND        RETRIEVAL SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR        DYNAMICALLY PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS IN A COMPUTER        NETWORK”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579, entitled “METABASE FOR FACILITATING        DATA CLASSIFICATION”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled “MANAGING COPIES OF DATA”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR        MONITORING APPLICATION DATA IN A DATA REPLICATION SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR        PERFORMING A SNAPSHOT AND FOR RESTORING DATA”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR        PERFORMING AUXILIARY STORAGE OPERATIONS”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, entitled “CONTENT-ALIGNED, BLOCK-BASED        DEDUPLICATION”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD TO        SUPPORT SINGLE INSTANCE STORAGE OPERATIONS”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0329534, entitled “APPLICATION-AWARE AND        REMOTE SINGLE INSTANCE DATA MANAGEMENT”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, entitled “DISTRIBUTED        DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, entitled “CLIENT-SIDE        REPOSITORY IN A NETWORKED DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OFFLINE        INDEXING OF CONTENT AND CLASSIFYING STORED DATA”; and    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR        STORED DATA VERIFICATION”.

The illustrated information management system 100 includes one or moreclient computing device 102 having at least one application 110executing thereon, and one or more primary storage devices 104 storingprimary data 112. The client computing device(s) 102 and the primarystorage devices 104 may generally be referred to in some cases as aprimary storage subsystem 117.

Depending on the context, the term “information management system” canrefer to generally all of the illustrated hardware and softwarecomponents. Or, in other instances, the term may refer to only a subsetof the illustrated components.

For instance, in some cases information management system 100 generallyrefers to a combination of specialized components used to protect, move,manage, manipulate and/or process data and metadata generated by theclient computing devices 102. However, the term may generally not referto the underlying components that generate and/or store the primary data112, such as the client computing devices 102 themselves, theapplications 110 and operating system residing on the client computingdevices 102, and the primary storage devices 104.

As an example, “information management system” may sometimes refer onlyto one or more of the following components and corresponding datastructures: storage managers, data agents, and media agents. Thesecomponents will be described in further detail below.

Client Computing Devices

There are typically a variety of sources in an organization that producedata to be protected and managed. As just one illustrative example, in acorporate environment such data sources can be employee workstations andcompany servers such as a mail server, a web server, or the like. In theinformation management system 100, the data generation sources includethe one or more client computing devices 102.

The client computing devices 102 may include, without limitation, one ormore: workstations, personal computers, desktop computers, or othertypes of generally fixed computing systems such as mainframe computersand minicomputers.

The client computing devices 102 can also include mobile or portablecomputing devices, such as one or more laptops, tablet computers,personal data assistants, mobile phones (such as smartphones), and othermobile or portable computing devices such as embedded computers, set topboxes, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable computers, etc.

In some cases, each client computing device 102 is associated with oneor more users and/or corresponding user accounts, of employees or otherindividuals.

The term “client computing device” is used herein because theinformation management system 100 generally “serves” the data managementand protection needs for the data generated by the client computingdevices 102. However, the use of this term does not imply that theclient computing devices 102 cannot be “servers” in other respects. Forinstance, a particular client computing device 102 may act as a serverwith respect to other devices, such as other client computing devices102. As just a few examples, the client computing devices 102 caninclude mail servers, file servers, database servers, and web servers.

The client computing devices 102 may additionally include virtualizedand/or cloud computing resources. For instance, one or more virtualmachines may be provided to the organization by a third-party cloudservice vendor. Or, in some embodiments, the client computing devices102 include one or more virtual machine(s) running on a virtual machinehost computing device operated by the organization. As one example, theorganization may use one virtual machine as a database server andanother virtual machine as a mail server. A virtual machine manager(VMM) (e.g., a Hypervisor) may manage the virtual machines, and resideand execute on the virtual machine host computing device.

Each client computing device 102 may have one or more applications 110(e.g., software applications) executing thereon which generate andmanipulate the data that is to be protected from loss.

The applications 110 generally facilitate the operations of anorganization (or multiple affiliated organizations), and can include,without limitation, mail server applications (e.g., Microsoft ExchangeServer), file server applications, mail client applications (e.g.,Microsoft Exchange Client), database applications (e.g., SQL, Oracle,SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word processing applications (e.g.,Microsoft Word), spreadsheet applications, financial applications,presentation applications, browser applications, mobile applications,entertainment applications, and so on.

The applications 110 can include at least one operating system (e.g.,Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux, other Unix-basedoperating systems, etc.), which may support one or more file systems andhost the other applications 110.

As shown, the client computing devices 102 and other components in theinformation management system 100 can be connected to one another viaone or more communication pathways 114. The communication pathways 114can include one or more networks or other connection types including asany of following, without limitation: the Internet, a wide area network(WAN), a local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN), a FibreChannel connection, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) connection,a virtual private network (VPN), a token ring or TCP/IP based network,an intranet network, a point-to-point link, a cellular network, awireless data transmission system, a two-way cable system, aninteractive kiosk network, a satellite network, a broadband network, abaseband network, other appropriate wired, wireless, or partiallywired/wireless computer or telecommunications networks, combinations ofthe same or the like. The communication pathways 114 in some cases mayalso include application programming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g.,cloud service provider APIs, virtual machine management APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs.

Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 according to some embodiments is production data orother “live” data generated by the operating system and otherapplications 110 residing on a client computing device 102. The primarydata 112 is stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and is organizedvia a file system supported by the client computing device 102. Forinstance, the client computing device(s) 102 and correspondingapplications 110 may create, access, modify, write, delete, andotherwise use primary data 112.

Primary data 112 is generally in the native format of the sourceapplication 110. According to certain aspects, primary data 112 is aninitial or first (e.g., created before any other copies or before atleast one other copy) stored copy of data generated by the sourceapplication 110. Primary data 112 in some cases is created substantiallydirectly from data generated by the corresponding source applications110.

The primary data 112 may sometimes be referred to as a “primary copy” inthe sense that it is a discrete set of data. However, the use of thisterm does not necessarily imply that the “primary copy” is a copy in thesense that it was copied or otherwise derived from another storedversion.

The primary storage devices 104 storing the primary data 112 may berelatively fast and/or expensive (e.g., a disk drive, a hard-disk array,solid state memory, etc.). In addition, primary data 112 may be intendedfor relatively short term retention (e.g., several hours, days, orweeks).

According to some embodiments, the client computing device 102 canaccess primary data 112 from the primary storage device 104 by makingconventional file system calls via the operating system. Primary data112 representing files may include structured data (e.g., databasefiles), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/or semi-structureddata. Some specific examples are described below with respect to FIG.1B.

It can be useful in performing certain tasks to break the primary data112 up into units of different granularities. In general, primary data112 can include files, directories, file system volumes, data blocks,extents, or any other types or granularities of data objects. As usedherein, a “data object” can refer to both (1) any file that is currentlyaddressable by a file system or that was previously addressable by thefile system (e.g., an archive file) and (2) a subset of such a file.

As will be described in further detail, it can also be useful inperforming certain functions of the information management system 100 toaccess and modify metadata within the primary data 112. Metadatagenerally includes information about data objects or characteristicsassociated with the data objects.

Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the following:the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates the data), thelast modified time (e.g., the time of the most recent modification ofthe data object), a data object name (e.g., a file name), a data objectsize (e.g., a number of bytes of data), information about the content(e.g., an indication as to the existence of a particular search term),to/from information for email (e.g., an email sender, recipient, etc.),creation date, file type (e.g., format or application type), lastaccessed time, application type (e.g., type of application thatgenerated the data object), location/network (e.g., a current, past orfuture location of the data object and network pathways to/from the dataobject), frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object ismodified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that generates,manages or is otherwise associated with the data object), and aginginformation (e.g., a schedule, such as a time period, in which the dataobject is migrated to secondary or long term storage), boot sectors,partition layouts, file location within a file folder directorystructure, user permissions, owners, groups, access control lists[ACLs]), system metadata (e.g., registry information), combinations ofthe same or the like.

In addition to metadata generated by or related to file systems andoperating systems, some of the applications 110 maintain indices ofmetadata for data objects, e.g., metadata associated with individualemail messages. Thus, each data object may be associated withcorresponding metadata. The use of metadata to perform classificationand other functions is described in greater detail below.

Each of the client computing devices 102 are associated with and/or incommunication with one or more of the primary storage devices 104storing corresponding primary data 112. A client computing device 102may be considered to be “associated with” or “in communication with” aprimary storage device 104 if it is capable of one or more of: storingdata to the primary storage device 104, retrieving data from the primarystorage device 104, and modifying data retrieved from a primary storagedevice 104.

The primary storage devices 104 can include, without limitation, diskdrives, hard-disk arrays, semiconductor memory (e.g., solid statedrives), and network attached storage (NAS) devices. In some cases, theprimary storage devices 104 form part of a distributed file system. Theprimary storage devices 104 may have relatively fast I/O times and/orare relatively expensive in comparison to the secondary storage devices108. For example, the information management system 100 may generallyregularly access data and metadata stored on primary storage devices104, whereas data and metadata stored on the secondary storage devices108 is accessed relatively less frequently.

In some cases, each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to anassociated client computing devices 102. For instance, a primary storagedevice 104 in one embodiment is a local disk drive of a correspondingclient computing device 102. In other cases, one or more primary storagedevices 104 can be shared by multiple client computing devices 102. Asone example, a primary storage device 104 can be a disk array shared bya group of client computing devices 102, such as one of the followingtypes of disk arrays: EMC Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, DellEqualLogic, IBM XIV, NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.

The information management system 100 may also include hosted services(not shown), which may be hosted in some cases by an entity other thanthe organization that employs the other components of the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, the hosted services may be providedby various online service providers to the organization. Such serviceproviders can provide services including social networking services,hosted email services, or hosted productivity applications or otherhosted applications).

Hosted services may include software-as-a-service (SaaS),platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers (ASPs),cloud services, or other mechanisms for delivering functionality via anetwork. As it provides services to users, each hosted service maygenerate additional data and metadata under management of theinformation management system 100, e.g., as primary data 112. In somecases, the hosted services may be accessed using one of the applications110. As an example, a hosted mail service may be accessed via browserrunning on a client computing device 102.

Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices

The primary data 112 stored on the primary storage devices 104 may becompromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately oraccidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112 during their normalcourse of work. Or the primary storage devices 104 can be damaged orotherwise corrupted.

For recovery and/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is thereforeuseful to generate copies of the primary data 112. Accordingly, theinformation management system 100 includes one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 and one or more secondary storage devices 108configured to create and store one or more secondary copies 116 of theprimary data 112 and associated metadata. The secondary storagecomputing devices 106 and the secondary storage devices 108 may bereferred to in some cases as a secondary storage subsystem 118.

Creation of secondary copies 116 can help meet information managementgoals, such as: restoring data and/or metadata if an original version(e.g., of primary data 112) is lost (e.g., by deletion, corruption, ordisaster); allowing point-in-time recovery; complying with regulatorydata retention and electronic discovery (e-discovery) requirements;reducing utilized storage capacity; facilitating organization and searchof data; improving user access to data files across multiple computingdevices and/or hosted services; and implementing data retentionpolicies.

Types of secondary copy operations can include, without limitation,backup operations, archive operations, snapshot operations, replicationoperations (e.g., continuous data replication [CDR]), data retentionpolicies such as information lifecycle management and hierarchicalstorage management operations, and the like. These specific typesoperations are discussed in greater detail below.

Regardless of the type of secondary copy operation, the client computingdevices 102 access or receive primary data 112 and communicate the data,e.g., over the communication pathways 114, for storage in the secondarystorage device(s) 108.

A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of applicationdata that is derived from one or more earlier created, stored copies(e.g., derived from primary data 112 or another secondary copy 116).Secondary copies 116 can include point-in-time data, and may be intendedfor relatively long-term retention (e.g., weeks, months or years),before some or all of the data is moved to other storage or isdiscarded.

In some cases, a secondary copy 116 is a copy of application datacreated and stored subsequent to at least one other stored instance(e.g., subsequent to corresponding primary data 112 or to anothersecondary copy 116), in a different storage device than at least oneprevious stored copy, and/or remotely from at least one previous storedcopy. Secondary copies 116 may be stored in relatively slow and/or lowcost storage (e.g., magnetic tape). A secondary copy 116 may be storedin a backup or archive format, or in some other format different thanthe native source application format or other primary data format.

In some cases, secondary copies 116 are indexed so users can browse andrestore at another point in time. After creation of a secondary copy 116representative of certain primary data 112, a pointer or other locationindicia (e.g., a stub) may be placed in primary data 112, or beotherwise associated with primary data 112 to indicate the currentlocation on the secondary storage device(s) 108.

Since an instance a data object or metadata in primary data 112 maychange over time as it is modified by an application 110 (or hostedservice or the operating system), the information management system 100may create and manage multiple secondary copies 116 of a particular dataobject or metadata, each representing the state of the data object inprimary data 112 at a particular point in time. Moreover, since aninstance of a data object in primary data 112 may eventually be deletedfrom the primary storage device 104 and the file system, the informationmanagement system 100 may continue to manage point-in-timerepresentations of that data object, even though the instance in primarydata 112 no longer exists.

For virtualized computing devices the operating system and otherapplications 110 of the client computing device(s) 102 may executewithin or under the management of virtualization software (e.g., a VMM),and the primary storage device(s) 104 may comprise a virtual diskcreated on a physical storage device. The information management system100 may create secondary copies 116 of the files or other data objectsin a virtual disk file and/or secondary copies 116 of the entire virtualdisk file itself (e.g., of an entire .vmdk file).

Secondary copies 116 may be distinguished from corresponding primarydata 112 in a variety of ways, some of which will now be described.First, as discussed, secondary copies 116 can be stored in a differentformat (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-native format) than primarydata 112. For this or other reasons, secondary copies 116 may not bedirectly useable by the applications 110 of the client computing device102, e.g., via standard system calls or otherwise without modification,processing, or other intervention by the information management system100.

Secondary copies 116 are also often stored on a secondary storage device108 that is inaccessible to the applications 110 running on the clientcomputing devices 102 (and/or hosted services). Some secondary copies116 may be “offline copies,” in that they are not readily available(e.g. not mounted to tape or disk). Offline copies can include copies ofdata that the information management system 100 can access without humanintervention (e.g. tapes within an automated tape library, but not yetmounted in a drive), and copies that the information management system100 can access only with at least some human intervention (e.g. tapeslocated at an offsite storage site).

The secondary storage devices 108 can include any suitable type ofstorage device such as, without limitation, one or more tape libraries,disk drives or other magnetic, non-tape storage devices, optical mediastorage devices, solid state storage devices, NAS devices, combinationsof the same, and the like. In some cases, the secondary storage devices108 are provided in a cloud (e.g. a private cloud or one operated by athird-party vendor).

The secondary storage device(s) 108 in some cases comprises a disk arrayor a portion thereof. In some cases, a single storage device (e.g., adisk array) is used for storing both primary data 112 and at least somesecondary copies 116. In one example, a disk array capable of performinghardware snapshots stores primary data 112 and creates and storeshardware snapshots of the primary data 112 as secondary copies 116.

The Use of Intermediary Devices for Creating Secondary Copies

Creating secondary copies can be a challenging task. For instance, therecan be hundreds or thousands of client computing devices 102 continuallygenerating large volumes of primary data 112 to be protected. Also,there can be significant overhead involved in the creation of secondarycopies 116. Moreover, secondary storage devices 108 may be specialpurpose components, and interacting with them can require specializedintelligence.

In some cases, the client computing devices 102 interact directly withthe secondary storage device 108 to create the secondary copies 116.However, in view of the factors described above, this approach cannegatively impact the ability of the client computing devices 102 toserve the applications 110 and produce primary data 112. Further, theclient computing devices 102 may not be optimized for interaction withthe secondary storage devices 108.

Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100includes one or more software and/or hardware components which generallyact as intermediaries between the client computing devices 102 and thesecondary storage devices 108. In addition to off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102, theseintermediary components can provide other benefits. For instance, asdiscussed further below with respect to FIG. 1D, distributing some ofthe work involved in creating secondary copies 116 can enhancescalability.

The intermediary components can include one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 as shown in FIG. 1A and/or one or more mediaagents, which can be software modules residing on correspondingsecondary storage computing devices 106 (or other appropriate devices).Media agents are discussed below (e.g., with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E).

The secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise anyappropriate type of computing device and can include, withoutlimitation, any of the types of fixed and portable computing devicesdescribed above with respect to the client computing devices 102. Insome cases, the secondary storage computing device(s) 106 includespecialized hardware and/or software componentry for interacting withthe secondary storage devices 108.

To create a secondary copy 116, the client computing device 102communicates the primary data 112 to be copied (or a processed versionthereof) to the designated secondary storage computing device 106, viathe communication pathway 114. The secondary storage computing device106 in turn conveys the received data (or a processed version thereof)to the secondary storage device 108. In some such configurations, thecommunication pathway 114 between the client computing device 102 andthe secondary storage computing device 106 comprises a portion of a LAN,WAN or SAN. In other cases, at least some client computing devices 102communicate directly with the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., viaFibre Channel or SCSI connections).

Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy

FIG. 1B is a detailed view showing some specific examples of primarydata stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and secondary copy datastored on the secondary storage device(s) 108, with other components inthe system removed for the purposes of illustration. Stored on theprimary storage device(s) 104 are primary data objects including wordprocessing documents 119A-B, spreadsheets 120, presentation documents122, video files 124, image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (andcorresponding email messages 129A-C), html/xml or other types of markuplanguage files 130, databases 132 and corresponding tables 133A-133C).

Some or all primary data objects are associated with a primary copy ofobject metadata (e.g., “Meta1-11”), which may be file system metadataand/or application specific metadata. Stored on the secondary storagedevice(s) 108 are secondary copy objects 134A-C which may include copiesof or otherwise represent corresponding primary data objects andmetadata.

As shown, the secondary copy objects 134A-C can individually representmore than one primary data object. For example, secondary copy dataobject 134A represents three separate primary data objects 133C, 122 and129C (represented as 133C′, 122′ and 129C′, respectively). Moreover, asindicated by the prime mark (′), a secondary copy object may store arepresentation of a primary data object or metadata differently than theoriginal format, e.g., in a compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, orother modified format.

Exemplary Information Management System Architecture

The information management system 100 can incorporate a variety ofdifferent hardware and software components, which can in turn beorganized with respect to one another in many different configurations,depending on the embodiment. There are critical design choices involvedin specifying the functional responsibilities of the components and therole of each component in the information management system 100. Forinstance, as will be discussed, such design choices can impactperformance as well as the adaptability of the information managementsystem 100 to data growth or other changing circumstances.

FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed according tothese considerations and which includes: a central storage orinformation manager 140 configured to perform certain control functions,one or more data agents 142 executing on the client computing device(s)102 configured to process primary data 112, and one or more media agents144 executing on the one or more secondary storage computing devices 106for performing tasks involving the secondary storage devices 108.

Storage Manager

As noted, the number of components in the information management system100 and the amount of data under management can be quite large. Managingthe components and data is therefore a significant task, and a task thatcan grow in an often unpredictable fashion as the quantity of componentsand data scale to meet the needs of the organization.

For these and other reasons, according to certain embodiments,responsibility for controlling the information management system 100, orat least a significant portion of that responsibility, is allocated tothe storage manager 140.

By distributing control functionality in this manner, the storagemanager 140 can be adapted independently according to changingcircumstances. Moreover, a host computing device can be selected to bestsuit the functions of the storage manager 140. These and otheradvantages are described in further detail below with respect to FIG.1D.

The storage manager 140 may be a software module or other application.The storage manager generally initiates, coordinates and/or controlsstorage and other information management operations performed by theinformation management system 100, e.g., to protect and control theprimary data 112 and secondary copies 116 of data and metadata.

As shown by the dashed, arrowed lines, the storage manager 140 maycommunicate with and/or control some or all elements of the informationmanagement system 100, such as the data agents 142 and media agents 144.Thus, in certain embodiments, control information originates from thestorage manager 140, whereas payload data and metadata is generallycommunicated between the data agents 142 and the media agents 144 (orotherwise between the client computing device(s) 102 and the secondarystorage computing device(s) 106), e.g., at the direction of the storagemanager 140. In other embodiments, some information managementoperations are controlled by other components in the informationmanagement system 100 (e.g., the media agent(s) 144 or data agent(s)142), instead of or in combination with the storage manager 140.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager provides one ormore of the following functions:

-   -   initiating execution of secondary copy operations;    -   managing secondary storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of        the same;    -   allocating secondary storage devices 108 for secondary storage        operations;    -   monitoring completion of and providing status reporting related        to secondary storage operations;    -   tracking age information relating to secondary copies 116,        secondary storage devices 108, and comparing the age information        against retention guidelines;    -   tracking movement of data within the information management        system 100;    -   tracking logical associations between components in the        information management system 100;    -   protecting metadata associated with the information management        system 100; and    -   implementing operations management functionality.

The storage manager 140 may maintain a database 146 ofmanagement-related data and information management policies 148. Thedatabase 146 may include a management index 150 or other data structurethat stores logical associations between components of the system, userpreferences and/or profiles (e.g., preferences regarding encryption,compression, or deduplication of primary or secondary copy data,preferences regarding the scheduling, type, or other aspects of primaryor secondary copy or other operations, mappings of particularinformation management users or user accounts to certain computingdevices or other components, etc.), management tasks, mediacontainerization, or other useful data. For example, the storage manager140 may use the index 150 to track logical associations between mediaagents 144 and secondary storage devices 108 and/or movement of datafrom primary storage devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108.

Administrators and other employees may be able to manually configure andinitiate certain information management operations on an individualbasis. But while this may be acceptable for some recovery operations orother relatively less frequent tasks, it is often not workable forimplementing on-going organization-wide data protection and management.

Thus, the information management system 100 may utilize informationmanagement policies 148 for specifying and executing informationmanagement operations (e.g., on an automated basis). Generally, aninformation management policy 148 can include a data structure or otherinformation source that specifies a set of parameters (e.g., criteriaand rules) associated with storage or other information managementoperations.

The storage manager database 146 may maintain the information managementpolicies 148 and associated data, although the information managementpolicies 148 can be stored in any appropriate location. For instance, astorage policy may be stored as metadata in a media agent database 152or in a secondary storage device 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for usein restore operations or other information management operations,depending on the embodiment. Information management policies 148 aredescribed further below.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager database 146comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL database) for trackingmetadata, such as metadata associated with secondary copy operations(e.g., what client computing devices 102 and corresponding data wereprotected). This and other metadata may additionally be stored in otherlocations, such as at the secondary storage computing devices 106 or onthe secondary storage devices 108, allowing data recovery without theuse of the storage manager 140.

As shown, the storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent 156, a userinterface 158, and a management agent 154, all of which may beimplemented as interconnected software modules or application programs.

The jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls, and/ormonitors the status of some or all storage or other informationmanagement operations previously performed, currently being performed,or scheduled to be performed by the information management system 100.For instance, the jobs agent 156 may access information managementpolicies 148 to determine when and how to initiate and control secondarycopy and other information management operations, as will be discussedfurther.

The user interface 158 may include information processing and displaysoftware, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), an applicationprogram interface (“API”), or other interactive interface through whichusers and system processes can retrieve information about the status ofinformation management operations (e.g., storage operations) or issueinstructions to the information management system 100 and itsconstituent components.

The storage manager 140 may also track information that permits it toselect, designate, or otherwise identify content indices, deduplicationdatabases, or similar databases or resources or data sets within itsinformation management cell (or another cell) to be searched in responseto certain queries. Such queries may be entered by the user viainteraction with the user interface 158.

Via the user interface 158, users may optionally issue instructions tothe components in the information management system 100 regardingperformance of storage and recovery operations. For example, a user maymodify a schedule concerning the number of pending secondary copyoperations. As another example, a user may employ the GUI to view thestatus of pending storage operations or to monitor the status of certaincomponents in the information management system 100 (e.g., the amount ofcapacity left in a storage device).

In general, the management agent 154 allows multiple informationmanagement systems 100 to communicate with one another. For example, theinformation management system 100 in some cases may be one informationmanagement subsystem or “cell” of a network of multiple cells adjacentto one another or otherwise logically related in a WAN or LAN. With thisarrangement, the cells may be connected to one another throughrespective management agents 154.

For instance, the management agent 154 can provide the storage manager140 with the ability to communicate with other components within theinformation management system 100 (and/or other cells within a largerinformation management system) via network protocols and applicationprogramming interfaces (“APIs”) including, e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, REST,virtualization software APIs, cloud service provider APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs. Inter-cell communication and hierarchy isdescribed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, which isincorporated by reference herein.

Data Agents

As discussed, a variety of different types of applications 110 canreside on a given client computing device 102, including operatingsystems, database applications, e-mail applications, and virtualmachines, just to name a few. And, as part of the as part of the processof creating and restoring secondary copies 116, the client computingdevices 102 may be tasked with processing and preparing the primary data112 from these various different applications 110. Moreover, the natureof the processing/preparation can differ across clients and applicationtypes, e.g., due to inherent structural and formatting differencesbetween applications 110.

The one or more data agent(s) 142 are therefore advantageouslyconfigured in some embodiments to assist in the performance ofinformation management operations based on the type of data that isbeing protected, at a client-specific and/or application-specific level.

The data agent 142 may be a software module or component that isgenerally responsible for managing, initiating, or otherwise assistingin the performance of information management operations. For instance,the data agent 142 may take part in performing data storage operationssuch as the copying, archiving, migrating, replicating of primary data112 stored in the primary storage device(s) 104. The data agent 142 mayreceive control information from the storage manager 140, such ascommands to transfer copies of data objects, metadata, and other payloaddata to the media agents 144.

In some embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed between theclient computing device 102 and storage manager 140 (and any otherintermediate components) or may be deployed from a remote location orits functions approximated by a remote process that performs some or allof the functions of data agent 142. In addition, a data agent 142 mayperform some functions provided by a media agent 144, e.g., encryptionand deduplication.

As indicated, each data agent 142 may be specialized for a particularapplication 110, and the system can employ multiple data agents 142,each of which may backup, migrate, and recover data associated with adifferent application 110. For instance, different individual dataagents 142 may be designed to handle Microsoft Exchange data, LotusNotes data, Microsoft Windows file system data, Microsoft ActiveDirectory Objects data, SQL Server data, SharePoint data, Oracledatabase data, SAP database data, virtual machines and/or associateddata, and other types of data.

A file system data agent, for example, may handle data files and/orother file system information. If a client computing device 102 has twoor more types of data, one data agent 142 may be used for each data typeto copy, archive, migrate, and restore the client computing device 102data. For example, to backup, migrate, and restore all of the data on aMicrosoft Exchange server, the client computing device 102 may use oneMicrosoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 142 to backup the Exchangemailboxes, one Microsoft Exchange Database data agent 142 to backup theExchange databases, one Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data agent 142to backup the Exchange Public Folders, and one Microsoft Windows FileSystem data agent 142 to backup the file system of the client computingdevice 102. In such embodiments, these data agents 142 may be treated asfour separate data agents 142 even though they reside on the same clientcomputing device 102.

Other embodiments may employ one or more generic data agents 142 thatcan handle and process data from two or more different applications 110,or that can handle and process multiple data types, instead of or inaddition to using specialized data agents 142. For example, one genericdata agent 142 may be used to back up, migrate and restore MicrosoftExchange Mailbox data and Microsoft Exchange Database data while anothergeneric data agent may handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data andMicrosoft Windows File System data.

Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or metadatastored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated with the dataagent 142 and process the data as appropriate. For example, during asecondary copy operation, the data agent 142 may arrange or assemble thedata and metadata into one or more files having a certain format (e.g.,a particular backup or archive format) before transferring the file(s)to a media agent 144 or other component. The file(s) may include a listof files or other metadata. Each data agent 142 can also assist inrestoring data or metadata to primary storage devices 104 from asecondary copy 116. For instance, the data agent 142 may operate inconjunction with the storage manager 140 and one or more of the mediaagents 144 to restore data from secondary storage device(s) 108.

Media Agents

As indicated above with respect to FIG. 1A, off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102 to intermediarycomponents such as the media agent(s) 144 can provide a number ofbenefits including improved client computing device 102 operation,faster secondary copy operation performance, and enhanced scalability.As one specific example which will be discussed below in further detail,the media agent 144 can act as a local cache of copied data and/ormetadata that it has stored to the secondary storage device(s) 108,providing improved restore capabilities.

Generally speaking, a media agent 144 may be implemented as a softwaremodule that manages, coordinates, and facilitates the transmission ofdata, as directed by the storage manager 140, between a client computingdevice 102 and one or more secondary storage devices 108. Whereas thestorage manager 140 controls the operation of the information managementsystem 100, the media agent 144 generally provides a portal to secondarystorage devices 108.

Media agents 144 can comprise logically and/or physically separate nodesin the information management system 100 (e.g., separate from the clientcomputing devices 102, storage manager 140, and/or secondary storagedevices 108). In addition, each media agent 144 may reside on adedicated secondary storage computing device 106 in some cases, while inother embodiments a plurality of media agents 144 reside on the samesecondary storage computing device 106.

A media agent 144 (and corresponding media agent database 152) may beconsidered to be “associated with” a particular secondary storage device108 if that media agent 144 is capable of one or more of: routing and/orstoring data to the particular secondary storage device 108,coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to the particularsecondary storage device 108, retrieving data from the particularsecondary storage device 108, and coordinating the retrieval of datafrom a particular secondary storage device 108.

While media agent(s) 144 are generally associated with one or moresecondary storage devices 108, the media agents 144 in certainembodiments are physically separate from the secondary storage devices108. For instance, the media agents 144 may reside on secondary storagecomputing devices 106 having different housings or packages than thesecondary storage devices 108. In one example, a media agent 144 resideson a first server computer and is in communication with a secondarystorage device(s) 108 residing in a separate, rack-mounted RAID-basedsystem.

In operation, a media agent 144 associated with a particular secondarystorage device 108 may instruct the secondary storage device 108 (e.g.,a tape library) to use a robotic arm or other retrieval means to load oreject a certain storage media, and to subsequently archive, migrate, orretrieve data to or from that media, e.g., for the purpose of restoringthe data to a client computing device 102. The media agent 144 maycommunicate with a secondary storage device 108 via a suitablecommunications link, such as a SCSI or Fiber Channel link.

As shown, each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media agentdatabase 152. The media agent database 152 may be stored in a disk orother storage device (not shown) that is local to the secondary storagecomputing device 106 on which the media agent 144 resides. In othercases, the media agent database 152 is stored remotely from thesecondary storage computing device 106.

The media agent database 152 can include, among other things, an index153 including data generated during secondary copy operations and otherstorage or information management operations. The index 153 provides amedia agent 144 or other component with a fast and efficient mechanismfor locating secondary copies 116 or other data stored in the secondarystorage devices 108. In one configuration, a storage manager index 150or other data structure may store data associating a client computingdevice 102 with a particular media agent 144 and/or secondary storagedevice 108, as specified in a storage policy. A media agent index 153 orother data structure associated with the particular media agent 144 mayin turn include information about the stored data.

For instance, for each secondary copy 116, the index 153 may includemetadata such as a list of the data objects (e.g., files/subdirectories,database objects, mailbox objects, etc.), a path to the secondary copy116 on the corresponding secondary storage device 108, locationinformation indicating where the data objects are stored in thesecondary storage device 108, when the data objects were created ormodified, etc. Thus, the index 153 includes metadata associated with thesecondary copies 116 that is readily available for use in storageoperations and other activities without having to be first retrievedfrom the secondary storage device 108. In yet further embodiments, someor all of the data in the index 153 may instead or additionally bestored along with the data in a secondary storage device 108, e.g., witha copy of the index 153.

Because the index 153 maintained in the database 152 may operate as acache, it can also be referred to as an index cache. In such cases,information stored in the index cache 153 typically comprises data thatreflects certain particulars about storage operations that have occurredrelatively recently. After some triggering event, such as after acertain period of time elapses, or the index cache 153 reaches aparticular size, the index cache 153 may be copied or migrated to asecondary storage device(s) 108. This information may need to beretrieved and uploaded back into the index cache 153 or otherwiserestored to a media agent 144 to facilitate retrieval of data from thesecondary storage device(s) 108. In some embodiments, the cachedinformation may include format or containerization information relatedto archives or other files stored on the storage device(s) 108. In thismanner, the index cache 153 allows for accelerated restores.

In some alternative embodiments the media agent 144 generally acts as acoordinator or facilitator of storage operations between clientcomputing devices 102 and corresponding secondary storage devices 108,but does not actually write the data to the secondary storage device108. For instance, the storage manager 140 (or the media agent 144) mayinstruct a client computing device 102 and secondary storage device 108to communicate with one another directly. In such a case the clientcomputing device 102 transmits the data directly to the secondarystorage device 108 according to the received instructions, and viceversa. In some such cases, the media agent 144 may still receive,process, and/or maintain metadata related to the storage operations.Moreover, in these embodiments, the payload data can flow through themedia agent 144 for the purposes of populating the index cache 153maintained in the media agent database 152, but not for writing to thesecondary storage device 108.

The media agent 144 and/or other components such as the storage manager140 may in some cases incorporate additional functionality, such as dataclassification, content indexing, deduplication, encryption,compression, and the like. Further details regarding these and otherfunctions are described below.

Distributed, Scalable Architecture

As described, certain functions of the information management system 100can be distributed amongst various physical and/or logical components inthe system. For instance, one or more of the storage manager 140, dataagents 142, and media agents 144 may reside on computing devices thatare physically separate from one another. This architecture can providea number of benefits.

For instance, hardware and software design choices for each distributedcomponent can be targeted to suit its particular function. The secondarycomputing devices 106 on which the media agents 144 reside can betailored for interaction with associated secondary storage devices 108and provide fast index cache operation, among other specific tasks.Similarly, the client computing device(s) 102 can be selected toeffectively service the applications 110 residing thereon, in order toefficiently produce and store primary data 112.

Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual components in theinformation management system 100 can be distributed to multiple,separate computing devices. As one example, for large file systems wherethe amount of data stored in the storage management database 146 isrelatively large, the management database 146 may be migrated to orotherwise reside on a specialized database server (e.g., an SQL server)separate from a server that implements the other functions of thestorage manager 140. This configuration can provide added protectionbecause the database 146 can be protected with standard databaseutilities (e.g., SQL log shipping or database replication) independentfrom other functions of the storage manager 140. The database 146 can beefficiently replicated to a remote site for use in the event of adisaster or other data loss incident at the primary site. Or thedatabase 146 can be replicated to another computing device within thesame site, such as to a higher performance machine in the event that astorage manager host device can no longer service the needs of a growinginformation management system 100.

The distributed architecture also provides both scalability andefficient component utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of theinformation management system 100 including a plurality of clientcomputing devices 102 and associated data agents 142 as well as aplurality of secondary storage computing devices 106 and associatedmedia agents 144.

Additional components can be added or subtracted based on the evolvingneeds of the information management system 100. For instance, dependingon where bottlenecks are identified, administrators can add additionalclient computing devices 102, secondary storage devices 106 (andcorresponding media agents 144), and/or secondary storage devices 108.

Moreover, each client computing device 102 in some embodiments cancommunicate with any of the media agents 144, e.g., as directed by thestorage manager 140. And each media agent 144 may be able to communicatewith any of the secondary storage devices 108, e.g., as directed by thestorage manager 140. Thus, operations can be routed to the secondarystorage devices 108 in a dynamic and highly flexible manner. Furtherexamples of scalable systems capable of dynamic storage operations areprovided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

In alternative configurations, certain components are not distributedand may instead reside and execute on the same computing device. Forexample, in some embodiments one or more data agents 142 and the storagemanager 140 reside on the same client computing device 102. In anotherembodiment, one or more data agents 142 and one or more media agents 144reside on a single computing device.

Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations

In order to protect and leverage stored data, the information managementsystem 100 can be configured to perform a variety of informationmanagement operations. As will be described, these operations cangenerally include secondary copy and other data movement operations,processing and data manipulation operations, and management operations.

Data Movement Operations

Data movement operations according to certain embodiments are generallyoperations that involve the copying or migration of data (e.g., payloaddata) between different locations in the information management system100. For example, data movement operations can include operations inwhich stored data is copied, migrated, or otherwise transferred fromprimary storage device(s) 104 to secondary storage device(s) 108, fromsecondary storage device(s) 108 to different secondary storage device(s)108, or from primary storage device(s) 104 to different primary storagedevice(s) 104.

Data movement operations can include by way of example, backupoperations, archive operations, information lifecycle managementoperations such as hierarchical storage management operations,replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication operations),snapshot operations, deduplication operations, single-instancingoperations, auxiliary copy operations, and the like. As will bediscussed, some of these operations involve the copying, migration orother movement of data, without actually creating multiple, distinctcopies. Nonetheless, some or all of these operations are referred to as“copy” operations for simplicity.

Backup Operations

A backup operation creates a copy of primary data 112 at a particularpoint in time. Each subsequent backup copy may be maintainedindependently of the first. Further, a backup copy in some embodimentsis stored in a backup format. This can be in contrast to the version inprimary data 112 from which the backup copy is derived, and which mayinstead be stored in a native format of the source application(s) 110.In various cases, backup copies can be stored in a format in which thedata is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modifiedfrom the original application format. For example, a backup copy may bestored in a backup format that facilitates compression and/or efficientlong-term storage.

Backup copies can have relatively long retention periods as compared toprimary data 112, and may be stored on media with slower retrieval timesthan primary data 112 and certain other types of secondary copies 116.On the other hand, backups may have relatively shorter retention periodsthan some other types of secondary copies 116, such as archive copies(described below). Backups may sometimes be stored at on offsitelocation.

Backup operations can include full, synthetic or incremental backups. Afull backup in some embodiments is generally a complete image of thedata to be protected. However, because full backup copies can consume arelatively large amount of storage, it can be useful to use a fullbackup copy as a baseline and only store changes relative to the fullbackup copy for subsequent backup copies.

For instance, a differential backup operation (or cumulative incrementalbackup operation) tracks and stores changes that have occurred since thelast full backup. Differential backups can grow quickly in size, but canprovide relatively efficient restore times because a restore can becompleted in some cases using only the full backup copy and the latestdifferential copy.

An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores changessince the most recent backup copy of any type, which can greatly reducestorage utilization. In some cases, however, restore times can berelatively long in comparison to full or differential backups becausecompleting a restore operation may involve accessing a full backup inaddition to multiple incremental backups.

Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the file-level,e.g., where the information management system 100 generally trackschanges to files at the file-level, and includes copies of files in thebackup copy. In other cases, block-level backups are employed, wherefiles are broken into constituent blocks, and changes are tracked at theblock-level. Upon restore, the information management system 100reassembles the blocks into files in a transparent fashion.

Far less data may actually be transferred and copied to the secondarystorage devices 108 during a block-level copy than during a file-levelcopy, resulting in faster execution times. However, when restoring ablock-level copy, the process of locating constituent blocks cansometimes result in longer restore times as compared to file-levelbackups. Similar to backup operations, the other types of secondary copyoperations described herein can also be implemented at either thefile-level or the block-level.

Archive Operations

Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a version of thecopied data in primary data 112 and also maintaining backup copies insecondary storage device(s) 108, they can consume significant storagecapacity. To help reduce storage consumption, an archive operationaccording to certain embodiments creates a secondary copy 116 by bothcopying and removing source data. Or, seen another way, archiveoperations can involve moving some or all of the source data to thearchive destination. Thus, data satisfying criteria for removal (e.g.,data of a threshold age or size) from the source copy may be removedfrom source storage. Archive copies are sometimes stored in an archiveformat or other non-native application format. The source data may beprimary data 112 or a secondary copy 116, depending on the situation. Aswith backup copies, archive copies can be stored in a format in whichthe data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwisemodified from the original application format.

In addition, archive copies may be retained for relatively long periodsof time (e.g., years) and, in some cases, are never deleted. Archivecopies are generally retained for longer periods of time than backupcopies, for example. In certain embodiments, archive copies may be madeand kept for extended periods in order to meet compliance regulations.

Moreover, when primary data 112 is archived, in some cases the archivedprimary data 112 or a portion thereof is deleted when creating thearchive copy. Thus, archiving can serve the purpose of freeing up spacein the primary storage device(s) 104. Similarly, when a secondary copy116 is archived, the secondary copy 116 may be deleted, and an archivecopy can therefore serve the purpose of freeing up space in secondarystorage device(s) 108. In contrast, source copies often remain intactwhen creating backup copies.

Snapshot Operations

Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight, efficientmechanism for protecting data. From an end-user viewpoint, a snapshotmay be thought of as an “instant” image of the primary data 112 at agiven point in time. In one embodiment, a snapshot may generally capturethe directory structure of an object in primary data 112 such as a fileor volume or other data set at a particular moment in time and may alsopreserve file attributes and contents. A snapshot in some cases iscreated relatively quickly, e.g., substantially instantly, using aminimum amount of file space, but may still function as a conventionalfile system backup.

A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and withoutsignificantly impacting primary computing resources because largeamounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, asnapshot may exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual filesystem. Users in some cases gain read-only access to the record of filesand directories of the snapshot. By electing to restore primary data 112from a snapshot taken at a given point in time, users may also returnthe current file system to the state of the file system that existedwhen the snapshot was taken.

Some types of snapshots do not actually create another physical copy ofall the data as it existed at the particular point in time, but maysimply create pointers that are able to map files and directories tospecific memory locations (e.g., disk blocks) where the data resides, asit existed at the particular point in time. For example, a snapshot copymay include a set of pointers derived from the file system or anapplication. Each pointer points to a respective stored data block, socollectively, the set of pointers reflect the storage location and stateof the data object (e.g., file(s) or volume(s) or data set(s)) at aparticular point in time when the snapshot copy was created.

In some embodiments, once a snapshot has been taken, subsequent changesto the file system typically do not overwrite the blocks in use at thetime of the snapshot. Therefore, the initial snapshot may use only asmall amount of disk space needed to record a mapping or other datastructure representing or otherwise tracking the blocks that correspondto the current state of the file system. Additional disk space isusually required only when files and directories are actually modifiedlater. Furthermore, when files are modified, typically only the pointerswhich map to blocks are copied, not the blocks themselves. In someembodiments, for example in the case of “copy-on-write” snapshots, whena block changes in primary storage, the block is copied to secondarystorage or cached in primary storage before the block is overwritten inprimary storage. The snapshot mapping of file system data is alsoupdated to reflect the changed block(s) at that particular point intime. In some other cases, a snapshot includes a full physical copy ofall or substantially all of the data represented by the snapshot.Further examples of snapshot operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,529,782, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Replication Operations

Another type of secondary copy operation is a replication operation.Some types of secondary copies 116 are used to periodically captureimages of primary data 112 at particular points in time (e.g., backups,archives, and snapshots). However, it can also be useful for recoverypurposes to protect primary data 112 in a more continuous fashion, byreplicating the primary data 112 substantially as changes occur. In somecases a replication copy can be a mirror copy, for instance, wherechanges made to primary data 112 are mirrored to another location (e.g.,to secondary storage device(s) 108). By copying each write operation tothe replication copy, two storage systems are kept synchronized orsubstantially synchronized so that they are virtually identical atapproximately the same time. Where entire disk volumes are mirrored,however, mirroring can require significant amount of storage space andutilizes a large amount of processing resources.

According to some embodiments storage operations are performed onreplicated data that represents a recoverable state, or “known goodstate” of a particular application running on the source system. Forinstance, in certain embodiments, known good replication copies may beviewed as copies of primary data 112. This feature allows the system todirectly access, copy, restore, backup or otherwise manipulate thereplication copies as if the data was the “live”, primary data 112. Thiscan reduce access time, storage utilization, and impact on sourceapplications 110, among other benefits.

Based on known good state information, the information management system100 can replicate sections of application data that represent arecoverable state rather than rote copying of blocks of data. Examplesof compatible replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication)are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, which is incorporated byreference herein.

Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations

Another type of data movement operation is deduplication, which isuseful to reduce the amount of data within the system. For instance,some or all of the above-described secondary storage operations caninvolve deduplication in some fashion. New data is read, broken downinto blocks (e.g., sub-file level blocks) of a selected granularity,compared with blocks that are already stored, and only the new blocksare stored. Blocks that already exist are represented as pointers to thealready stored data.

In order to stream-line the comparison process, the informationmanagement system 100 may calculate and/or store signatures (e.g.,hashes) corresponding to the individual data blocks and compare thehashes instead of comparing entire data blocks. In some cases, only asingle instance of each element is stored, and deduplication operationsmay therefore be referred to interchangeably as “single-instancing”operations. Depending on the implementation, however, deduplication orsingle-instancing operations can store more than one instance of certaindata blocks, but nonetheless significantly reduce data redundancy.Moreover, single-instancing in some cases is distinguished fromdeduplication as a process of analyzing and reducing data at the filelevel, rather than the sub-file level.

Depending on the embodiment, deduplication blocks can be of fixed orvariable length. Using variable length blocks can provide enhanceddeduplication by responding to changes in the data stream, but caninvolve complex processing. In some cases, the information managementsystem 100 utilizes a technique for dynamically aligning deduplicationblocks (e.g., fixed-length blocks) based on changing content in the datastream, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, which is incorporatedby reference herein.

The information management system 100 can perform deduplication in avariety of manners at a variety of locations in the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, in some embodiments, theinformation management system 100 implements “target-side” deduplicationby deduplicating data (e.g., secondary copies 116) stored in thesecondary storage devices 108. In some such cases, the media agents 144are generally configured to manage the deduplication process. Forinstance, one or more of the media agents 144 maintain a correspondingdeduplication database that stores deduplication information (e.g.,datablock signatures). Examples of such a configuration are provided inU.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, which is incorporated by referenceherein. Deduplication can also be performed on the “source-side” (or“client-side”), e.g., to reduce the amount of traffic between the mediaagents 144 and the client computing device(s) 102 and/or reduceredundant data stored in the primary storage devices 104. Examples ofsuch deduplication techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.2012/0150818, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage ManagementOperations

In some embodiments, files and other data over their lifetime move frommore expensive, quick access storage to less expensive, slower accessstorage. Operations associated with moving data through various tiers ofstorage are sometimes referred to as information lifecycle management(ILM) operations.

One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage management (HSM)operation. A HSM operation is generally an operation for automaticallymoving data between classes of storage devices, such as betweenhigh-cost and low-cost storage devices. For instance, an HSM operationmay involve movement of data from primary storage devices 104 tosecondary storage devices 108, or between tiers of secondary storagedevices 108. With each tier, the storage devices may be progressivelyrelatively cheaper, have relatively slower access/restore times, etc.For example, movement of data between tiers may occur as data becomesless important over time.

In some embodiments, an HSM operation is similar to an archive operationin that creating an HSM copy may (though not always) involve deletingsome of the source data. For example, an HSM copy may include data fromprimary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 that is larger than a givensize threshold or older than a given age threshold and that is stored ina backup format.

Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data that is removedor aged from the source copy is replaced by a logical reference pointeror stub. The reference pointer or stub can be stored in the primarystorage device 104 to replace the deleted data in primary data 112 (orother source copy) and to point to or otherwise indicate the newlocation in a secondary storage device 108.

According to one example, files are generally moved between higher andlower cost storage depending on how often the files are accessed. When auser requests access to the HSM data that has been removed or migrated,the information management system 100 uses the stub to locate the dataand often make recovery of the data appear transparent, even though theHSM data may be stored at a location different from the remaining sourcedata. The stub may also include some metadata associated with thecorresponding data, so that a file system and/or application can providesome information about the data object and/or a limited-functionalityversion (e.g., a preview) of the data object.

An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native applicationformat (e.g., where the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated,and/or otherwise modified from the original application format). In somecases, copies which involve the removal of data from source storage andthe maintenance of stub or other logical reference information on sourcestorage may be referred to generally as “on-line archive copies”. On theother hand, copies which involve the removal of data from source storagewithout the maintenance of stub or other logical reference informationon source storage may be referred to as “off-line archive copies”.

Auxiliary Copy and Disaster Recovery Operations

An auxiliary copy is generally a copy operation in which a copy iscreated of an existing secondary copy 116. For instance, an initial or“primary” secondary copy 116 may be generated using or otherwise bederived from primary data 112, whereas an auxiliary copy is generatedfrom the initial secondary copy 116. Auxiliary copies can be used tocreate additional standby copies of data and may reside on differentsecondary storage devices 108 than initial secondary copies 116. Thus,auxiliary copies can be used for recovery purposes if initial secondarycopies 116 become unavailable. Exemplary compatible auxiliary copytechniques are described in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195,which is incorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 may also perform disaster recoveryoperations that make or retain disaster recovery copies, often assecondary, high-availability disk copies. The information managementsystem 100 may create secondary disk copies and store the copies atdisaster recovery locations using auxiliary copy or replicationoperations, such as continuous data replication technologies. Dependingon the particular data protection goals, disaster recovery locations canbe remote from the client computing devices 102 and primary storagedevices 104, remote from some or all of the secondary storage devices108, or both.

Data Processing and Manipulation Operations

As indicated, the information management system 100 can also beconfigured to implement certain data manipulation operations, whichaccording to certain embodiments are generally operations involving theprocessing or modification of stored data. Some data manipulationoperations include content indexing operations and classificationoperations can be useful in leveraging the data under management toprovide enhanced search and other features. Other data manipulationoperations such as compression and encryption can provide data reductionand security benefits, respectively.

Data manipulation operations can be different than data movementoperations in that they do not necessarily involve the copying,migration or other transfer of data (e.g., primary data 112 or secondarycopies 116) between different locations in the system. For instance,data manipulation operations may involve processing (e.g., offlineprocessing) or modification of already stored primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116. However, in some embodiments data manipulationoperations are performed in conjunction with data movement operations.As one example, the information management system 100 may encrypt datawhile performing an archive operation.

Content Indexing

In some embodiments, the information management system 100 “contentindexes” data stored within the primary data 112 and/or secondary copies116, providing enhanced search capabilities for data discovery and otherpurposes. The content indexing can be used to identify files or otherdata objects having predefined content (e.g., user-defined keywords orphrases), metadata (e.g., email metadata such as “to”, “from”, “cc”,“bcc”, attachment name, received time, etc.).

The information management system 100 generally organizes and cataloguesthe results in a content index, which may be stored within the mediaagent database 152, for example. The content index can also include thestorage locations of (or pointer references to) the indexed data in theprimary data 112 or secondary copies 116, as appropriate. The resultsmay also be stored, in the form of a content index database orotherwise, elsewhere in the information management system 100 (e.g., inthe primary storage devices 104, or in the secondary storage device108). Such index data provides the storage manager 140 or anothercomponent with an efficient mechanism for locating primary data 112and/or secondary copies 116 of data objects that match particularcriteria.

For instance, search criteria can be specified by a user through userinterface 158 of the storage manager 140. In some cases, the informationmanagement system 100 analyzes data and/or metadata in secondary copies116 to create an “off-line” content index, without significantlyimpacting the performance of the client computing devices 102. Dependingon the embodiment, the system can also implement “on-line” contentindexing, e.g., of primary data 112. Examples of compatible contentindexing techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, which isincorporated by reference herein.

Classification Operations—Metabase

In order to help leverage the data stored in the information managementsystem 100, one or more components can be configured to scan data and/orassociated metadata for classification purposes to populate a metabaseof information. Such scanned, classified data and/or metadata may beincluded in a separate database and/or on a separate storage device fromprimary data 112 (and/or secondary copies 116), such that metabaserelated operations do not significantly impact performance on othercomponents in the information management system 100.

In other cases, the metabase(s) may be stored along with primary data112 and/or secondary copies 116. Files or other data objects can beassociated with user-specified identifiers (e.g., tag entries) in themedia agent 144 (or other indices) to facilitate searches of stored dataobjects. Among a number of other benefits, the metabase can also allowefficient, automatic identification of files or other data objects toassociate with secondary copy or other information management operations(e.g., in lieu of scanning an entire file system). Examples ofcompatible metabases and data classification operations are provided inU.S. Pat. Nos. 8,229,954 and 7,747,579, which are incorporated byreference herein.

Encryption Operations

The information management system 100 in some cases is configured toprocess data (e.g., files or other data objects, secondary copies 116,etc.), according to an appropriate encryption algorithm (e.g., Blowfish,Advanced Encryption Standard [AES], Triple Data Encryption Standard[3-DES], etc.) to limit access and provide data security in theinformation management system 100.

The information management system 100 in some cases encrypts the data atthe client level, such that the client computing devices 102 (e.g., thedata agents 142) encrypt the data prior to forwarding the data to othercomponents, e.g., before sending the data media agents 144 during asecondary copy operation. In such cases, the client computing device 102may maintain or have access to an encryption key or passphrase fordecrypting the data upon restore. Encryption can also occur whencreating copies of secondary copies, e.g., when creating auxiliarycopies. In yet further embodiments, the secondary storage devices 108can implement built-in, high performance hardware encryption.

Management Operations

Certain embodiments leverage the integrated, ubiquitous nature of theinformation management system 100 to provide useful system-widemanagement functions. As two non-limiting examples, the informationmanagement system 100 can be configured to implement operationsmanagement and e-discovery functions.

Operations management can generally include monitoring and managing thehealth and performance of information management system 100 by, withoutlimitation, performing error tracking, generating granularstorage/performance metrics (e.g., job success/failure information,deduplication efficiency, etc.), generating storage modeling and costinginformation, and the like.

Such information can be provided to users via the user interface 158 ina single, integrated view. For instance, the integrated user interface158 can include an option to show a “virtual view” of the system thatgraphically depicts the various components in the system usingappropriate icons. The operations management functionality canfacilitate planning and decision-making. For example, in someembodiments, a user may view the status of some or all jobs as well asthe status of each component of the information management system 100.Users may then plan and make decisions based on this data. For instance,a user may view high-level information regarding storage operations forthe information management system 100, such as job status, componentstatus, resource status (e.g., network pathways, etc.), and otherinformation. The user may also drill down or use other means to obtainmore detailed information regarding a particular component, job, or thelike.

In some cases the information management system 100 alerts a user suchas a system administrator when a particular resource is unavailable orcongested. For example, a particular primary storage device 104 orsecondary storage device 108 might be full or require additionalcapacity. Or a component may be unavailable due to hardware failure,software problems, or other reasons. In response, the informationmanagement system 100 may suggest solutions to such problems when theyoccur (or provide a warning prior to occurrence). For example, thestorage manager 140 may alert the user that a secondary storage device108 is full or otherwise congested. The storage manager 140 may thensuggest, based on job and data storage information contained in itsdatabase 146, an alternate secondary storage device 108.

Other types of corrective actions may include suggesting an alternatedata path to a particular primary or secondary storage device 104, 108,or dividing data to be stored among various available primary orsecondary storage devices 104, 108 as a load balancing measure or tootherwise optimize storage or retrieval time. Such suggestions orcorrective actions may be performed automatically, if desired. Furtherexamples of some compatible operations management techniques and ofinterfaces providing an integrated view of an information managementsystem are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated byreference herein. In some embodiments, the storage manager 140implements the operations management functions described herein.

The information management system 100 can also be configured to performsystem-wide e-discovery operations in some embodiments. In general,e-discovery operations provide a unified collection and searchcapability for data in the system, such as data stored in the secondarystorage devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or other secondary copies116). For example, the information management system 100 may constructand maintain a virtual repository for data stored in the informationmanagement system 100 that is integrated across source applications 110,different storage device types, etc. According to some embodiments,e-discovery utilizes other techniques described herein, such as dataclassification and/or content indexing.

Information Management Policies

As indicated previously, an information management policy 148 caninclude a data structure or other information source that specifies aset of parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated with secondarycopy or other information management operations.

One type of information management policy 148 is a storage policy.According to certain embodiments, a storage policy generally comprises alogical container that defines (or includes information sufficient todetermine) one or more of the following items: (1) what data will beassociated with the storage policy; (2) a destination to which the datawill be stored; (3) datapath information specifying how the data will becommunicated to the destination; (4) the type of storage operation to beperformed; and (5) retention information specifying how long the datawill be retained at the destination.

Data associated with a storage policy can be logically organized intogroups, which can be referred to as “sub-clients”. A sub-client mayrepresent static or dynamic associations of portions of a data volume.Sub-clients may represent mutually exclusive portions. Thus, in certainembodiments, a portion of data may be given a label and the associationis stored as a static entity in an index, database or other storagelocation.

Sub-clients may also be used as an effective administrative scheme oforganizing data according to data type, department within theenterprise, storage preferences, or the like. Depending on theconfiguration, sub-clients can correspond to files, folders, virtualmachines, databases, etc. In one exemplary scenario, an administratormay find it preferable to separate e-mail data from financial data usingtwo different sub-clients.

A storage policy can define where data is stored by specifying a targetor destination storage device (or group of storage devices). Forinstance, where the secondary storage device 108 includes a group ofdisk libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular disk libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the policy. As anotherexample, where the secondary storage devices 108 include one or moretape libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular tape libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the storage policy, and mayalso specify a drive pool and a tape pool defining a group of tapedrives and a group of tapes, respectively, for use in storing thesub-client data.

Datapath information can also be included in the storage policy. Forinstance, the storage policy may specify network pathways and componentsto utilize when moving the data to the destination storage device(s). Insome embodiments, the storage policy specifies one or more media agents144 for conveying data (e.g., one or more sub-clients) associated withthe storage policy between the source (e.g., one or more host clientcomputing devices 102) and destination (e.g., a particular targetsecondary storage device 108).

A storage policy can also specify the type(s) of operations associatedwith the storage policy, such as a backup, archive, snapshot, auxiliarycopy, or the like. Retention information can specify how long the datawill be kept, depending on organizational needs (e.g., a number of days,months, years, etc.)

The information management policies 148 may also include one or morescheduling policies specifying when and how often to perform operations.Scheduling information may specify with what frequency (e.g., hourly,weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under what triggering conditionssecondary copy or other information management operations will takeplace. Scheduling policies in some cases are associated with particularcomponents, such as particular sub-clients, client computing device 102,and the like. In one configuration, a separate scheduling policy ismaintained for particular sub-clients on a client computing device 102.The scheduling policy specifies that those sub-clients are to be movedto secondary storage devices 108 every hour according to storagepolicies associated with the respective sub-clients.

When adding a new client computing device 102, administrators canmanually configure information management policies 148 and/or othersettings, e.g., via the user interface 158. However, this can be aninvolved process resulting in delays, and it may be desirable to begindata protecting operations quickly.

Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100automatically applies a default configuration to client computing device102. As one example, when a data agent(s) 142 is installed on a clientcomputing devices 102, the installation script may register the clientcomputing device 102 with the storage manager 140, which in turn appliesthe default configuration to the new client computing device 102. Inthis manner, data protection operations can begin substantiallyimmediately. The default configuration can include a default storagepolicy, for example, and can specify any appropriate informationsufficient to begin data protection operations. This can include a typeof data protection operation, scheduling information, a target secondarystorage device 108, data path information (e.g., a particular mediaagent 144), and the like.

Other types of information management policies 148 are possible. Forinstance, the information management policies 148 can also include oneor more audit or security policies. An audit policy is a set ofpreferences, rules and/or criteria that protect sensitive data in theinformation management system 100. For example, an audit policy maydefine “sensitive objects” as files or objects that contain particularkeywords (e.g. “confidential,” or “privileged”) and/or are associatedwith particular keywords (e.g., in metadata) or particular flags (e.g.,in metadata identifying a document or email as personal, confidential,etc.).

An audit policy may further specify rules for handling sensitiveobjects. As an example, an audit policy may require that a reviewerapprove the transfer of any sensitive objects to a cloud storage site,and that if approval is denied for a particular sensitive object, thesensitive object should be transferred to a local storage device 104instead. To facilitate this approval, the audit policy may furtherspecify how a secondary storage computing device 106 or other systemcomponent should notify a reviewer that a sensitive object is slated fortransfer.

In some implementations, the information management policies 148 mayinclude one or more provisioning policies. A provisioning policy caninclude a set of preferences, priorities, rules, and/or criteria thatspecify how clients 102 (or groups thereof) may utilize systemresources, such as available storage on cloud storage and/or networkbandwidth. A provisioning policy specifies, for example, data quotas forparticular client computing devices 102 (e.g. a number of gigabytes thatcan be stored monthly, quarterly or annually). The storage manager 140or other components may enforce the provisioning policy. For instance,the media agents 144 may enforce the policy when transferring data tosecondary storage devices 108. If a client computing device 102 exceedsa quota, a budget for the client computing device 102 (or associateddepartment) is adjusted accordingly or an alert may trigger.

While the above types of information management policies 148 have beendescribed as separate policies, one or more of these can be generallycombined into a single information management policy 148. For instance,a storage policy may also include or otherwise be associated with one ormore scheduling, audit, or provisioning policies. Moreover, whilestorage policies are typically associated with moving and storing data,other policies may be associated with other types of informationmanagement operations. The following is a non-exhaustive list of itemsthe information management policies 148 may specify:

-   -   schedules or other timing information, e.g., specifying when        and/or how often to perform information management operations;    -   the type of secondary copy 116 and/or secondary copy format        (e.g., snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.);    -   a location or a class or quality of storage for storing        secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more particular secondary        storage devices 108);    -   preferences regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress,        deduplicate, or otherwise modify or transform secondary copies        116;    -   which system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred        media agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage        operations;    -   resource allocation between different computing devices or other        system components used in performing information management        operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage        capacity, etc.);    -   whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or        other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted        services; and    -   retention information specifying the length of time primary data        112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained, e.g., in a        particular class or tier of storage devices, or within the        information management system 100.

Policies can additionally specify or depend on a variety of historicalor current criteria that may be used to determine which rules to applyto a particular data object, system component, or information managementoperation, such as:

-   -   frequency with which primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 of        a data object or metadata has been or is predicted to be used,        accessed, or modified;    -   time-related factors (e.g., aging information such as time since        the creation or modification of a data object);    -   deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,        deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other        metrics);    -   an estimated or historic usage or cost associated with different        components (e.g., with secondary storage devices 108);    -   the identity of users, applications 110, client computing        devices 102 and/or other computing devices that created,        accessed, modified, or otherwise utilized primary data 112 or        secondary copies 116;    -   a relative sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality) of a data object,        e.g., as determined by its content and/or metadata;    -   the current or historical storage capacity of various storage        devices;    -   the current or historical network capacity of network pathways        connecting various components within the storage operation cell;    -   access control lists or other security information; and    -   the content of a particular data object (e.g., its textual        content) or of metadata associated with the data object.

Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Storage Operations

FIG. 1E shows a data flow data diagram depicting performance of storageoperations by an embodiment of an information management system 100,according to an exemplary data storage policy 148A. The informationmanagement system 100 includes a storage manger 140, a client computingdevice 102 having a file system data agent 142A and an email data agent142B residing thereon, a primary storage device 104, two media agents144A, 144B, and two secondary storage devices 108A, 108B: a disk library108A and a tape library 108B. As shown, the primary storage device 104includes primary data 112A, 112B associated with a file systemsub-client and an email sub-client, respectively.

As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B and the tapelibrary 108B are “off-site”, and may therefore be remotely located fromthe other components in the information management system 100 (e.g., ina different city, office building, etc.). In this manner, informationstored on the tape library 108B may provide protection in the event of adisaster or other failure.

The file system sub-client and its associated primary data 112A incertain embodiments generally comprise information generated by the filesystem and/or operating system of the client computing device 102, andcan include, for example, file system data (e.g., regular files, filetables, mount points, etc.), operating system data (e.g., registries,event logs, etc.), and the like. The e-mail sub-client, on the otherhand, and its associated primary data 112B, include data generated by ane-mail client application operating on the client computing device 102,and can include mailbox information, folder information, emails,attachments, associated database information, and the like. As describedabove, the sub-clients can be logical containers, and the data includedin the corresponding primary data 112A, 112B may or may not be storedcontiguously.

The exemplary storage policy 148A includes a backup copy rule set 160, adisaster recovery copy rule set 162, and a compliance copy rule set 164.The backup copy rule set 160 specifies that it is associated with a filesystem sub-client 166 and an email sub-client 168. Each of thesesub-clients 166, 168 are associated with the particular client computingdevice 102. The backup copy rule set 160 further specifies that thebackup operation will be written to the disk library 108A, anddesignates a particular media agent 144A to convey the data to the disklibrary 108A. Finally, the backup copy rule set 160 specifies thatbackup copies created according to the rule set 160 are scheduled to begenerated on an hourly basis and to be retained for 30 days. In someother embodiments, scheduling information is not included in the storagepolicy 148A, and is instead specified by a separate scheduling policy.

The disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the same twosub-clients 166, 168. However, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162is associated with the tape library 108B, unlike the backup copy ruleset 160. Moreover, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 specifiesthat a different media agent 144B than the media agent 144A associatedwith the backup copy rule set 160 will be used to convey the data to thetape library 108B. As indicated, disaster recovery copies createdaccording to the rule set 162 will be retained for 60 days, and will begenerated on a daily basis. Disaster recovery copies generated accordingto the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 can provide protection in theevent of a disaster or other data-loss event that would affect thebackup copy 116A maintained on the disk library 108A.

The compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the emailsub-client 166, and not the file system sub-client 168. Compliancecopies generated according to the compliance copy rule set 164 willtherefore not include primary data 112A from the file system sub-client166. For instance, the organization may be under an obligation to storemaintain copies of email data for a particular period of time (e.g., 10years) to comply with state or federal regulations, while similarregulations do not apply to the file system data. The compliance copyrule set 164 is associated with the same tape library 108B and mediaagent 144B as the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, although adifferent storage device or media agent could be used in otherembodiments. Finally, the compliance copy rule set 164 specifies thatcopies generated under the compliance copy rule set 164 will be retainedfor 10 years, and will be generated on a quarterly basis.

At step 1, the storage manager 140 initiates a backup operationaccording to the backup copy rule set 160. For instance, a schedulingservice running on the storage manager 140 accesses schedulinginformation from the backup copy rule set 160 or a separate schedulingpolicy associated with the client computing device 102, and initiates abackup copy operation on an hourly basis. Thus, at the scheduled timeslot the storage manager 140 sends instructions to the client computingdevice 102 to begin the backup operation.

At step 2, the file system data agent 142A and the email data agent 142Bresiding on the client computing device 102 respond to the instructionsreceived from the storage manager 140 by accessing and processing theprimary data 112A, 112B involved in the copy operation from the primarystorage device 104. Because the operation is a backup copy operation,the data agent(s) 142A, 142B may format the data into a backup format orotherwise process the data.

At step 3, the client computing device 102 communicates the retrieved,processed data to the first media agent 144A, as directed by the storagemanager 140, according to the backup copy rule set 160. In some otherembodiments, the information management system 100 may implement aload-balancing, availability-based, or other appropriate algorithm toselect from the available set of media agents 144A, 144B. Regardless ofthe manner the media agent 144A is selected, the storage manager 140 mayfurther keep a record in the storage manager database 140 of theassociation between the selected media agent 144A and the clientcomputing device 102 and/or between the selected media agent 144A andthe backup copy 116A.

The target media agent 144A receives the data from the client computingdevice 102, and at step 4 conveys the data to the disk library 108A tocreate the backup copy 116A, again at the direction of the storagemanager 140 and according to the backup copy rule set 160. The secondarystorage device 108A can be selected in other ways. For instance, themedia agent 144A may have a dedicated association with a particularsecondary storage device(s), or the storage manager 140 or media agent144A may select from a plurality of secondary storage devices, e.g.,according to availability, using one of the techniques described in U.S.Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to include dataand/or metadata related to the backup copy 116A, such as informationindicating where the backup copy 116A resides on the disk library 108A,data and metadata for cache retrieval, etc. After the 30 day retentionperiod expires, the storage manager 140 instructs the media agent 144Ato delete the backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A.

At step 5, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of a disasterrecovery copy 116B according to the disaster recovery copy rule set 162.For instance, at step 6, based on instructions received from the storagemanager 140 at step 5, the specified media agent 144B retrieves the mostrecent backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A.

At step 7, again at the direction of the storage manager 140 and asspecified in the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, the media agent144B uses the retrieved data to create a disaster recovery copy 116B onthe tape library 108B. In some cases, the disaster recovery copy 116B isa direct, mirror copy of the backup copy 116A, and remains in the backupformat. In other embodiments, the disaster recovery copy 116C may begenerated in some other manner, such as by using the primary data 112A,112B from the storage device 104 as source data. The disaster recoverycopy operation is initiated once a day and the disaster recovery copies116A are deleted after 60 days.

At step 8, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of acompliance copy 116C, according to the compliance copy rule set 164. Forinstance, the storage manager 140 instructs the media agent 144B tocreate the compliance copy 116C on the tape library 108B at step 9, asspecified in the compliance copy rule set 164. In the example, thecompliance copy 116C is generated using the disaster recovery copy 116B.In other embodiments, the compliance copy 116C is instead generatedusing either the primary data 112B corresponding to the email sub-clientor using the backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A as source data.As specified, compliance copies 116C are created quarterly, and aredeleted after ten years.

While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a restoreoperation can be initiated involving one or more of the secondary copies116A, 116B, 116C. As one example, a user may manually initiate a restoreof the backup copy 116A by interacting with the user interface 158 ofthe storage manager 140. The storage manager 140 then accesses data inits index 150 (and/or the respective storage policy 148A) associatedwith the selected backup copy 116A to identify the appropriate mediaagent 144A and/or secondary storage device 116A.

In other cases, a media agent may be selected for use in the restoreoperation based on a load balancing algorithm, an availability basedalgorithm, or other criteria. The selected media agent 144A retrievesthe data from the disk library 108A. For instance, the media agent 144Amay access its index 153 to identify a location of the backup copy 116Aon the disk library 108A, or may access location information residing onthe disk 108A itself.

When the backup copy 116A was recently created or accessed, the mediaagent 144A accesses a cached version of the backup copy 116A residing inthe media agent index 153, without having to access the disk library108A for some or all of the data. Once it has retrieved the backup copy116A, the media agent 144A communicates the data to the source clientcomputing device 102. Upon receipt, the file system data agent 142A andthe email data agent 142B may unpackage (e.g., restore from a backupformat to the native application format) the data in the backup copy116A and restore the unpackaged data to the primary storage device 104.

Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting

The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can vary, dependingon the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies 116 are formatted asa series of logical data units or “chunks” (e.g., 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4GB, or 8 GB chunks). This can facilitate efficient communication andwriting to secondary storage devices 108, e.g., according to resourceavailability. For example, a single secondary copy 116 may be written ona chunk-by-chunk basis to a single secondary storage device 108 oracross multiple secondary storage devices 108. In some cases, users canselect different chunk sizes, e.g., to improve throughput to tapestorage devices.

Generally, each chunk can include a header and a payload. The payloadcan include files (or other data units) or subsets thereof included inthe chunk, whereas the chunk header generally includes metadata relatingto the chunk, some or all of which may be derived from the payload. Forexample, during a secondary copy operation, the media agent 144, storagemanager 140, or other component may divide the associated files intochunks and generate headers for each chunk by processing the constituentfiles.

The headers can include a variety of information such as fileidentifier(s), volume(s), offset(s), or other information associatedwith the payload data items, a chunk sequence number, etc. Importantly,in addition to being stored with the secondary copy 116 on the secondarystorage device 108, the chunk headers can also be stored to the index153 of the associated media agent(s) 144 and/or the storage managerindex 150. This is useful in some cases for providing faster processingof secondary copies 116 during restores or other operations. In somecases, once a chunk is successfully transferred to a secondary storagedevice 108, the secondary storage device 108 returns an indication ofreceipt, e.g., to the media agent 144 and/or storage manager 140, whichmay update their respective indexes 150, 153 accordingly.

During restore, chunks may be processed (e.g., by the media agent 144)according to the information in the chunk header to reassemble thefiles. Additional information relating to chunks can be found in U.S.Pat. No. 8,156,086, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Data Recovery Automation

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example arrangement ofresources in a data storage environment. As shown, the data storagesystem 250 may generally include a storage manager 201, a data agent295, a media agent 205, a storage device 215, and, in some embodiments,may include certain other components such as a client 285, a data orinformation store 290, database or index 211, jobs agent 220, aninterface module 225, and a management agent 230. Such a system andelements thereof are exemplary of a modular storage system such as theCommVault Simpana system available from CommVault Systems, Inc. ofOceanport, N.J., and further described in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/610,738, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, which is incorporatedherein by reference, in its entirety.

A data storage system, such as the system 250, may generally includecombinations of hardware and software components associated withperforming storage operations on electronic data. According to someembodiments of the present disclosure, storage system 250 may be relatedto data storage cells and provide some or all of the functionality ofdata storage cells as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/354,058, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282 which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

As shown, the data storage system 250 can include a recovery automationmodule 221 including a recovery automation interface 222. The recoveryautomation module 221 can be configured to generate a recoveryautomation package 224, which can be stored on storage media 223. Forinstance, a user may interact with the recovery automation interface 222to construct a recovery automation workflow for recovery of the datastorage system 250 or portions thereof and/or production data associatedwith the data storage system or portions thereof. The contents of theautomation package 224 will vary depending on the contents of theuser-constructed workflow.

The recovery automation module 221 may be a software module or part of asoftware module that is generally responsible for generating therecovery package 224. As shown, the recovery automation module 221 mayform a part of the storage manager 201. In other embodiments, therecovery automation module 221 is separate from the storage manager 201.In one case, the recovery automation module 223 resides on the samecomputing device as the storage manager 201, but forms a separatesoftware module.

The recovery automation interface 222 may include information processingand display software, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”) (notshown). Through the recovery automation interface 222, users canconstruct a recovery workflow. In some cases, the automation interface222 allows the user to initiate execution of one or more predefinedrecovery packages. For instance, the user may use the automationinterface 222 of a first instance recovery automation module 222 tocreate one or more recovery packages at a first point in time, e.g., atthe production site. And, at a second point in time, the user caninstall a second instance of the recovery automation module 223, alsoincluding the automation interface 222, e.g., at the recovery site. Theinterface 222 additionally provides the user with the ability to executeand/or edit the pre-configured automation packages to implement thedesired recovery operations.

For instance, the recovery automation module 221 may maintain or haveaccess to a set of pre-configured tasks or activities that can beoptionally included in the recovery package 224. Code segments or setsof instructions associated with the pre-configured tasks can be storedon media that is accessible by the recovery automation module 221. Forinstance, code segments, sets of instructions, or other informationsufficient to implement the pre-configured automation tasks can becontained in the database 227. The database 227 is stored on one or morestorage devices coupled to the computing device on which the automationmodule 222 and/or storage manager 201 reside, for example. The codesegments or instructions can be scripts written in Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML), Perl, Java, or any other appropriate scripting orprogramming language. In some cases, the instructions compriseexecutable instructions. As just a few examples, the activities caninclude commands to install particular software modules and programs(e.g., media agents, storage managers, data agents, databaseapplications or other software applications, file systems, etc.),recover and restore data (e.g., restore a database such as an or otherSQL database, restore a file system, etc.). In some embodiments, theautomation module 221 provides the user with the ability to create theirown, customized automation tasks. For instance, the user can createautomation tasks for implementing customer-specific functional testing,data validation, or other customized operations. These and other tasksare discussed in further detail herein, with respect to FIGS. 3A-5, forexample.

Via the automation interface 222, the user can select one or more of thepre-configured tasks for inclusion in the particular customized recoveryflow. For instance, the automation interface 222 can display a set oficons that are each associated with a particular task. In someembodiments, the interface 222 includes a “drag-and-drop” typeinterface, where the user can select desired icons and move them to aparticular area of the display to create a customized recovery flow. Insuch cases, the user can further define the order and/or relationshipbetween the different tasks by placing the icons in proper relation toone another on the display. For instance, one or more connectors, arrowsor other control constructs can be used to relate the icons to oneanother and/or define the order that the corresponding tasks will beexecuted. Other mechanisms can be used instead of, or in addition to adrag-and-drop interface. For instance, the user may double click on anicon, text, or other information associated with a particular task toinclude that task in the recovery flow.

The recovery package 224 can generally include an executablerepresentation of the user-defined data storage recovery flow. Forinstance, the recovery automation module 221 accesses the code segments(or other appropriate type of data) corresponding to the selectedrecovery tasks from the database 227. Then the automation module 221assembles the code segments together to create the recovery package 224.As one example, the code segments or other data are assembled in a list,in the defined order of execution. In some cases, the code segments orother data are stored in a file associated with the particular recoverypackage 224 (e.g., and XML file). When the data recovery package 224 islater invoked, execution of the package 224 implements the automatedrecovery flow. The recovery package 224 is discussed in further detailherein (e.g., with respect to FIGS. 3A-5).

The storage media 223 on which the recovery package 224 is stored cangenerally include any appropriate type of media, such as solid statememory, magnetic memory (e.g., a spinning hard-drive), optical media(e.g., a DVD), etc. In some cases, the media 223 is remote from thestorage system 250 and/or portable (e.g, a thumb-drive) so that therecovery package 224 can be accessed in the event of a disaster or otherevent in which components in the data storage system 250 becomeunavailable. In some cases, the recovery package is initially storedlocal to the data storage system 250, and is then copied or moved todifferent storage media that is remote from the storage system 250. Inone embodiment, a copy of the recovery package 224 is maintained incloud storage, or is automatically transmitted to one or more recoverysites (not shown) for remote storage. In some cases, the recoverypackage 224 is stored on one or more of the other storage devices in thedata storage system 250, such as one or more of the storage devices 215coupled to the media agents 205, or one or more storage devicesassociated with the storage manager 201 or client(s).

As mentioned, the automated recovery process can restore data associatedwith the data storage system 250, portions of the data storage system250 itself, or both.

The data recovered during the automated recovery process may includeproduction data generated by one or more of the clients 285, such asdata stored in one or more of the information stores 290 (e.g., primarycopies of production data), or data stored in the storage devices 215(e.g., secondary copies of production data). For example, the recoverypackage 224 can be used to recovery primary copies, backup copies,snapshot copies, replication copies, auxiliary copies, or the like.Examples of compatible replication techniques are included in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/640,829, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262,which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

In some embodiments, one or more secondary copies of data are used assource data in the recovery process. For instance, one or more of thestorage devices 215 may be remote from other components in the datastorage system 250, such as one or more of the storage manager 201,clients 285, media agents 205, information stores 290 and/or othercomponents. And the secondary copies on the remote storage devices 215can be accessed directly during the recovery process, serving as arecovery data source.

In other embodiments, one or more other remote storage device(s)contains the data used in the recovery process. As one example, the datastorage system 250 may create one or more auxiliary copies of secondarycopies (e.g., secondary copies stored in the storage devices 215), andstore the auxiliary copies in one or more off-site storage devices (notshown), which are accessed during recovery.

In yet other cases, the data used in the recovery process is deriveddirectly from primary production data (e.g., primary data stored in oneor more of the client information stores 290). For instance, primaryproduction data, rather than secondary copies, may be copied to remotestorage to create one or more recovery copies that usable in therecovery process.

The portions of the data storage system 250 recovered as part of theautomated recovery process can include the storage manager 201 orportions thereof, such as the index 211, one or more of the clients 285or portions thereof, such as particular data agents 295 or informationstores 290, and one or more of the media agents 205 or portions thereof.For instance, the recovery package 224 can include commands forinstalling software modules corresponding to these components. Inaddition, the recovery package 224 can include recovery metadata such asa set of configuration parameters associated with components in the datastorage system 250. The recovery metadata can be used during therecovery process to configure the various recovered components properly.

Further aspects of the automated recovery process are described below,such as with respect to FIGS. 3A-5.

In accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure,additional storage operations performed by storage systems may includecreating, storing, retrieving, and migrating primary storage data (e.g.,290) and secondary storage data (which may include, for example,snapshot copies, backup copies, HSM copies, archive copies, and othertypes of copies of electronic data) stored on storage devices 215. Insome embodiments, storage systems may also provide one or moreintegrated management consoles for users or system processes tointerface with in order to perform certain storage operations onelectronic data as further described herein. Such integrated managementconsoles may be displayed at a central control facility or severalsimilar consoles distributed throughout multiple network locations toprovide global or geographically specific network data storageinformation.

In some embodiments, storage operations may be performed according tovarious storage preferences, for example as expressed by a userpreference or storage policy. Exemplary storage policies are describedabove, and in some embodiments, a storage policy can be any of thestorage policies described above with respect to FIGS. 1C-E. A storagepolicy can be a data structure or other information source that includesa set of preferences and other storage criteria associated withperforming a storage operation. The preferences and storage criteria mayinclude, but are not limited to, a storage location, relationshipsbetween system components, network pathway to utilize, retentionpolicies, data characteristics, compression or encryption requirements,preferred system components to utilize in a storage operation, othercriteria relating to a storage operation, combinations of the same andthe like. Thus, in certain embodiments, a storage policy may indicatethat certain data is to be stored in a specific storage device, retainedfor a specified period of time before being aged to another tier ofsecondary storage, copied to secondary storage using a specified numberof streams. A storage policy may be stored in the storage managerdatabase 211, to archive media as metadata for use in restore operationsor other storage operations, or to other locations or components of thesystem.

In certain embodiments, a schedule policy may specify when to performstorage operations and how often and may also specify performing certainstorage operations on sub-clients of data and how to treat thosesub-clients. A sub-client may represent static or dynamic associationsof portions of data of a volume and are typically mutually exclusive.Thus, in certain embodiments, a portion of data may be given a label andthe association is stored as a static entity in an index, database orother storage location used by the system. Sub-clients may also be usedas an effective administrative scheme of organizing data according todata type, department within the enterprise, storage preferences,combinations of the same or the like. Other example sub-clients aredescribed above.

For example, an administrator may find it preferable to separate e-maildata from financial data using two different sub-clients havingdifferent storage preferences, retention criteria, or the like. Storagesystems may contain not only physical devices, but also may representlogical concepts, organizations, and hierarchies. For example, a firststorage system 250 may be configured to perform a first type of storageoperations such as HSM operations, which may include backup or othertypes of data migration, and may include a variety of physicalcomponents including the storage manager 201 (or management agent 230),the media agent 205, the client component 285, and other components asdescribed herein. A second storage system, or cell may contain the sameor similar physical components, however, it may be configured to performa second type of storage operations such as SRM operations, and mayinclude as monitoring a primary data copy or performing other known SRMoperations.

Thus, as can be seen from the above, although the first and secondstorage cells are logically distinct entities configured to performdifferent management functions (i.e., HSM and SRM respectively), eachcell may contain the same or similar physical devices. Alternatively, inother embodiments, different storage cells may contain some of the samephysical devices and not others. For example, a storage systemconfigured to perform SRM tasks may contain the media agent 205, client285, or other network device connected to a primary storage volume,while a storage cell configured to perform HSM tasks may instead includea media agent 205, client 285, or other network device connected to asecondary storage volume and not contain the elements or componentsassociated with and including the primary storage volume. These twocells, however, may each include a different storage manager thatcoordinates storage operations via the same media agents 205 and storagedevices 215. This “overlapping” configuration allows storage resourcesto be accessed by more than one storage manager 201 such that multiplepaths exist to each storage device 215 facilitating failover, loadbalancing and promoting robust data access via alternative routes.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the same storage manager 201 maycontrol two or more cells (whether or not each storage cell has its owndedicated storage manager). Moreover, in certain embodiments, the extentor type of overlap may be user-defined (e.g., through a control console)or may be automatically configured to optimize data storage and/orretrieval.

Data agent 295 may be the same or similar to the data agents 142described with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E, and may be a software module orpart of a software module that is generally responsible for copying,archiving, migrating, and recovering data from client computer 285stored in an information store 290 or other memory location. Each clientcomputer 285 may have at least one data agent 295 and the system cansupport multiple client computers 285. In some embodiments, data agents295 may be distributed between client 285 and storage manager 201 (andany other intermediate components) or may be deployed from a remotelocation or its functions approximated by a remote process that performssome or all of the functions of data agent 295.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may employ multiple data agents295 each of which may backup, migrate, and recover data associated witha different application. For example, different individual data agents295 may be designed to handle Microsoft Exchange data, Lotus Notes data,Microsoft Windows file system data, Microsoft Active Directory Objectsdata, and other types of data. Other embodiments may employ one or moregeneric data agents 295 that can handle and process multiple data typesrather than using the specialized data agents described above.

If a client computer 285 has two or more types of data, one data agent295 may be required for each data type to copy, archive, migrate, andrestore the client computer 285 data. For example, to backup, migrate,and restore all of the data on a Microsoft Exchange server, the clientcomputer 285 may use one Microsoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 295 tobackup the Exchange mailboxes, one Microsoft Exchange Database dataagent 295 to backup the Exchange databases, one Microsoft ExchangePublic Folder data agent 295 to backup the Exchange Public Folders, andone Microsoft Windows File System data agent 295 to backup the clientcomputers 285 file system. In such embodiments, these data agents 295may be treated as four separate data agents 295 by the system eventhough they reside on the same client computer 285.

Alternatively, other embodiments may use one or more generic data agents295, each of which may be capable of handling two or more data types.For example, one generic data agent 295 may be used to back up, migrateand restore Microsoft Exchange 2000 Mailbox data and Microsoft Exchange2000 Database data while another generic data agent may handle MicrosoftExchange 2000 Public Folder data and Microsoft Windows 2000 File Systemdata, or the like.

Data agents 295 may be responsible for arranging or packing data to becopied or migrated into a certain format such as an archive file.Nonetheless, it will be understood this represents only one example andany suitable packing or containerization technique or transfermethodology may be used if desired. Such an archive file may include alist of files or data objects copied in metadata, the file and dataobjects themselves. Moreover, any data moved by the data agents may betracked within the system by updating indexes associated appropriatestorage managers or media agents.

Generally speaking, storage manager 201 may be the same or similar tothe storage managers 140 described with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E, and canbe a software module or other application that coordinates and controlsstorage operations performed by storage system 250. Storage manager 201may communicate with some or all elements of storage system 250including client computers 285, data agents 295, media agents 205, andstorage devices 215, to initiate and manage system backups, migrations,and data recovery.

Storage manager 201 may include a jobs agent 220 that monitors thestatus of some or all storage operations previously performed, currentlybeing performed, or scheduled to be performed by storage operation cell250. Jobs agent 220 may be communicatively coupled with an interfaceagent 225 (typically a software module or application). Interface agent225 may include information processing and display software, such as agraphical user interface (“GUI”), an application program interface(“API”), or other interactive interface through which users and systemprocesses can retrieve information about the status of storageoperations. Through interface 225, users may optionally issueinstructions to various storage systems 250 regarding performance of thestorage operations as described and contemplated by the presentdisclosure. For example, a user may modify a schedule concerning thenumber of pending snapshot copies or other types of copies scheduled asneeded to suit particular needs or requirements. As another example, auser may employ the GUI to view the status of pending storage operationsin some or all of the storage cells in a given network or to monitor thestatus of certain components in a particular storage cell (e.g., theamount of storage capacity left in a particular storage device).

Storage manager 201 may also include a management agent 230 that istypically implemented as a software module or application program. Ingeneral, management agent 230 provides an interface that allows variousmanagement components 201 in other storage operation cells 250 tocommunicate with one another. For example, assume a certain networkconfiguration includes multiple cells 250 adjacent to one another orotherwise logically related in a WAN or LAN configuration (not shown).With this arrangement, each cell 250 may be connected to the otherthrough each respective interface agent 225. This allows each cell 250to send and receive certain pertinent information from other cells 250including status information, routing information, information regardingcapacity and utilization, or the like. These communication paths mayalso be used to convey information and instructions regarding storageoperations.

For example, a management agent in a first storage cell may communicatewith a management agent in a second storage cell regarding the status ofstorage operations in the second storage cell. Another illustrativeexample includes the case where a management agent in first storage cellcommunicates with a management agent 230 in a second storage cell tocontrol the storage manager 201 (and other components) of the secondstorage cell via the management agent 230 contained in the storagemanager 201.

Another illustrative example is the case where management agent 230 inthe first storage cell 250 communicates directly with and controls thecomponents in the second storage cell 250 and bypasses the storagemanager 201 in the second storage cell. If desired, storage cells 250can also be organized hierarchically such that hierarchically superiorcells control or pass information to hierarchically subordinate cells orvice versa.

Storage manager 201 may also maintain an index, a database, or otherdata structure 211. The data stored in database 211 may be used toindicate logical associations between components of the system, userpreferences, management tasks, media containerization and data storageinformation or other useful data, as described in greater detail inapplication Ser. No. 10/818,749, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety. For example, the storagemanager 201 may use data from database 211 to track logical associationsbetween media agent 205 and storage devices 215 (or movement of data ascontainerized from primary to secondary storage). In addition, to theindex 211, the storage system 250 can also include one or more indexesas part of the media agent 270.

A media agent 105 may be the same or similar to the media agents 144described with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E. A media agent 105 may also bereferred to as or be implemented on a secondary storage computing device205, may be implemented as software module that conveys data, asdirected by storage manager 201, between a client computer 285 and oneor more storage devices 215 such as a tape library, a magnetic mediastorage device, an optical media storage device, solid state media, orany other suitable storage device. In one embodiment, secondarycomputing device 205 may be communicatively coupled with and control astorage device 215. A secondary computing device 205 may be consideredto be associated with a particular storage device 215 if that secondarycomputing device 205 is capable of routing and storing data toparticular storage device 215.

In operation, a secondary computing device 205 associated with aparticular storage device 215 may instruct the storage device to use arobotic arm or other retrieval means to load or eject a certain storagemedia, and to subsequently archive, migrate, or restore data to or fromthat media. Secondary computing device 205 may communicate with astorage device 215 via a suitable communications path such as a SCSI orfiber channel communications link. In some embodiments, the storagedevice 215 may be communicatively coupled to a data agent 205 via astorage area network (“SAN”). As shown, in certain embodiments, eachclient 285 can communicate with any of the secondary storage computingdevices 205, e.g., as directed by the storage manager. Moreover, eachsecondary storage device 205 can communicate with any of the secondarystorage devices 215, e.g., as directed by the storage manager. Thus,storage operations can be routed to the storage devices 215 in a dynamicand flexible manner. This inter-networked configuration provides bothscalability and efficient component utilization. Further compatibleexamples of dynamic storage operations are provided in application Ser.No. 10/818,749, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207.

Each secondary storage computing device 205 may maintain an index 226, adatabase, or other data structure 226 which may store index datagenerated during backup, migration, and restore and other storageoperations as described herein. For example, performing storageoperations on Microsoft Exchange data may generate index data. Suchindex data provides a secondary computing device 205 or other externaldevice with a fast and efficient mechanism for locating data stored orbacked up. Thus, in some embodiments, a secondary storage computingdevice index 226, or a storage manager database 211, may store dataassociating a client 285 with a particular secondary computing device205 or storage device 215, for example, as specified in a storagepolicy, while a database or other data structure in secondary computingdevice 205 may indicate where specifically the client 285 data is storedin storage device 215, what specific files were stored, and otherinformation associated with storage of client 285 data. In someembodiments, such index data may be stored along with the data backed upin a storage device 215, with an additional copy of the index datawritten to index cache in a secondary storage device. Thus the data isreadily available for use in storage operations and other activitieswithout having to be first retrieved from the storage device 215.

Generally speaking, information stored in cache is typically recentinformation that reflects certain particulars about operations that haverecently occurred. After a certain period of time, this information issent to secondary storage and tracked. This information may need to beretrieved and uploaded back into a cache or other memory in a secondarycomputing device before data can be retrieved from storage device 215.In some embodiments, the cached information may include informationregarding format or containerization of archive or other files stored onstorage device 215.

In some embodiments, certain components may reside and execute on thesame computer. For example, in some embodiments, a client computer 285,such as a data agent 295 or a storage manager 201, coordinates anddirects local archiving, migration, and retrieval application functionsas further described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/610,738.This client computer 285 can function independently or together withother similar client computers 285.

Furthermore, components of the storage system of FIG. 2 can alsocommunicate with each other via a computer network. For example, thenetwork may comprise a public network such as the Internet, virtualprivate network (VPN), token ring or TCP/IP based network, wide areanetwork (WAN), local area network (LAN), an intranet network,point-to-point link, a wireless network, cellular network, wireless datatransmission system, two-way cable system, interactive kiosk network,satellite network, broadband network, baseband network, any othernetworks described herein, combinations of the same or the like.

Additionally, the various components of FIG. 2 may be configured fordeduplication. For example, one or more of the clients 285 can include adeduplicated database. The data stored in the storage devices 215 orstorage devices 290 may also be deduplicated. For example, one or moreof the media agents 260 associated with the respective storage devices280 can manage the deduplication of data in the storage devices 215.

The storage system 250 can perform various types of storage operations,such as, for example, replication, snapshots, archiving and the like. Adescription of some storage operations compatible with embodimentsdescribed herein is provided near the end of this disclosure.

Example Recovery Automation Process

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate the generation and execution of a recoveryautomation package 302 according to certain embodiments. Referring toFIG. 3A, in general, execution of the recovery package 302 implementsthe recovery of portions of a first, source data storage system 304and/or data associated with the first data storage system 304. The firstdata storage system 304 is implemented on a first set of one or morecomputer hardware devices 306 at a production site. For instance,execution of the recovery package 302 may replicate the first datastorage system 304 or portions thereof onto a second set of one or morecomputer hardware devices 356 to create a second data storage system354. Moreover, execution of the recovery package 302 can restore datafrom the first data storage system 304 to one or more of the storagedevices 356 f-356 i in the second data storage system 354. The secondset of computer hardware devices 356 may reside at a recovery site orother location which that is physically remote from the production site,in certain embodiments.

The first set of computer hardware devices 306 can include one or morecomputing devices 306 a-306 e, such as the storage manager computingdevice 306 a, the client computing devices 306 b, 306 c, and thesecondary storage computing devices 306 d, 306 e, as well as one or morestorage devices 306 f-306 i, which can include storage devices 306 f,306 g for storing primary copies of production data and 306 h, 306 i forstoring secondary copies of production data. The computing devices 306a-306 e can include servers, desktop or laptop computers, mobiledevices, other appropriate computing devices, depending on theparticular system configuration. The storage devices 306 f-306 i caninclude any appropriate type of storage devices, such as tape libraries,magnetic media storage devices, optical media storage devices, solidstate media storage devices, or any other suitable storage devices. Thenumber and type of hardware devices 306 and data storage components canvary depending on the embodiment.

In addition, one or more data storage components 307 a-307 e reside onthe computing devices 306 a-306 e. For instance, a storage managermodule 307 a, one or more data agents 307 b, 307 c and one or more mediaagents 307 d, 307 e, execute on the computing devices 307 a-307 e,respectively. In general, the data storage system 304 can be the same asor similar to the data storage system 350 described above with respectto FIG. 2. For instance, the computer hardware devices 306 a-306 e andthe components 307 a-307 e can be similar to or the same as thecorresponding similarly named components described with respect to FIG.2, and can be arranged with respect to and communicate with one anotherin a similar manner. Thus, in some embodiments, the data storage devices306 f, 306 g can comprise corresponding information stores that storeprimary production data generated by the client computing devices 306 b,306 e, and can be similar to or the same as the information stores 390of FIG. 2. Additionally, the data storage devices 306 h, 306 i can storesecondary copies of the production data, similar to the storage devices315 of FIG. 2.

At operational step 1, the recovery automation module 308 generatesand/or outputs at least one recovery automation package 302. Forinstance, as described above with respect to FIG. 2, the user mayinteract with a GUI, command-line, word-processing, or other type ofinterface (not shown) to construct a recovery flow. Based on theuser-constructed recovery flow, the recovery automation module 308generates the recovery automation package(s) 302. For instance, the usermay select a particular set of tasks for inclusion in the recoveryflow(s).

Once the user designs the recovery flow, the automation module 308creates the recovery package 302 for storage on storage media 303, whichcan be the storage media 323 described with respect to FIG. 2, forexample. In one embodiment, the recovery automation module 308 accessesa data base containing code segments or other information associatedwith the selected tasks. The database can be the task database 327 shownin FIG. 2, for instance. The accessed code segments are combinedtogether and otherwise processed to create a set of recovery tasks 308for inclusion in the recovery package 302. In one embodiment, the set ofrecovery tasks 308 can include a sequential series of commands that canbe parsed and/or processed by a computing device on which the recoverypackage 302 is invoked to carry out the associated tasks. The recoverytasks 308 are described further with respect to FIG. 5 below. In somecases, multiple recovery automation packages 302 are generated. Forinstance, the user may wish to create several automation packages 302which are each designed to perform targeted recovery of different selectportions of the data storage environment. As a first illustrativeexample, a user creates one automation package 302 for restoring a database including the following recovery tasks 308: install storagemanager; install media agent; install SQL data base; restore database.As another example, a user creates an automation package 302 forrestoring a file system including the following recovery tasks 308:install storage manager; install media agent; install file system;restore file system. One or more separate automation packages may alsobe created for each of a plurality data storage environments (e.g.,multiple production sites). Each recovery automation package 302 isstored as a separate file in some embodiments.

In some cases, an instance of the recovery automation module 308 isstored along with the recovery package 302 on the storage media 303. Forinstance, instance of the automation module 308 stored on the media 303may be accessed for installation, e.g., at the recovery site, as part ofthe recovery process. In such a case, the user can install theautomation module 308 and then use the GUI or other interface of theautomation module to execute a desired automation package 302. As shown,the recovery package 302 in some embodiments also includes recoverymetadata 309. The recovery metadata 309 is discussed in further detailherein, and can include configuration information that is used torecover the data storage system 304 (or portions thereof).

In some embodiments, the recovery package 302 does not include recoverymetadata 309, and recovery metadata 326 is instead included in one ormore recovery copies 320, which are discussed further below. In anotherconfiguration, the recovery package 302 and the recovery copy 320 bothcontain copies of identical recovery metadata. In other embodiments, therecovery package 302 includes a subset of the recovery metadata 326contained in the recovery copy 320. For instance, the recovery metadata309 in the recovery package 302 may include sufficient configurationparameters or other metadata 309 to initiate the recovery process, andthe recovery copy 320 includes the remaining recovery metadata 326. Inother cases, the recovery package 302 and the recovery copy 320 includesome common metadata and some different metadata. The recovery metadata326 can include configuration information related to the source system304. As an example, a database (not shown) associated with the storagemanager module 307 a may include the configuration information, and theconfiguration information is included in the recovery copy 322 (e.g., abackup copy).

The configuration information can generally include informationsufficient to rebuild the source storage system 304, and can include,but is not limited to, information specifying the number, type andarrangement of the various components in the source storage system 304.For instance, the configuration information can include a number ofclient computing devices 306 b, 306 c and associated data agents 307 b,307 c, type of data agents 307 b, 307 c (e.g., file system data agent,Exchange data agent, or the like), number and type of secondary storagecomputing devices 306 d, 306 e and associated media agents 307 d, 307 e,number and type of primary storage devices 306 f, 306 g, number and typeof secondary storage devices 306 h, 306 i. The configuration informationcan further include topology information indicating how the variouscomponents are connected to one another, settings or parametersassociated with one or more of the components, among other types ofinformation.

While the configuration information can in some embodiments includeinformation sufficient to rebuild the entire source storage system 304,the recovery tasks 308 may in some cases only include instructions forrebuilding a subset of the source storage system (e.g., one or morecritical components).

At operational step 2, the data storage system 304 creates one or morerecovery copies 320, which can be stored on one or more storage devices322. For instance, each recovery copy includes recovery data 324 thatcan correspond to production data generated by one or more applicationsrunning on the client computing devices 306 b, 306 c. As a few examples,the recovery data 324 and/or recovery data 324 can include backupcopies, snapshot copies, replication copies, auxiliary copies, or copiesof any of these, depending on the embodiment. In some embodiments, therecovery copy 320 is dedicated for recovery purposes.

The storage device(s) 322 that store the one or more recovery copies 320is preferably physically remote from the data storage system 304 orcomponents thereof. This can decrease the likelihood that a disaster orother event affecting the integrity of the data storage system 304 willalso affect the integrity of the storage device(s) 322.

While the creation of the recovery copy(s) 320 is illustrated asoccurring after the creation of the recovery package, the two operationscould occur in reverse order or in overlapping fashion, depending on theembodiment. For instance, the data storage system 304 may create therecovery copies 320 on a scheduled basis, according to a storage policy,while the timing of the creation of the recovery package 302 may occurintermittently, depending on user action. In one embodiment, a recoverycopy is automatically generated upon creation of a recovery package 302.In this way, the recovery copy 320 can closely reflect the data storagesystem 304 as it existed at the time the recovery package 302 wascreated. In order to track the association between recovery packages 302and corresponding recovery copies 320, one or more of the recoverypackage 302 and the corresponding recovery copy 320 can include anidentifier indicative of the association (e.g., a unique alphanumericidentifier). In this way, upon execution of the recovery package 302,the corresponding recovery copy 320 can be identified and used in therecovery.

Referring to FIG. 3B, a disaster or other event has occurred at theproduction site. The integrity of data storage system 304 has beencompromised, as indicated by the “X”, resulting in a loss of data and/orfailure of components in the data storage system 304. In order to beginthe recovery process, the recovery package 302 is invoked at operationalstep 3 by a first computing device 356 a located at the recovery site.For instance, as just one example, a company employee may travel to therecovery site and access the computing device 356 a. The employee mayuse the computing device 356 a to load the recovery package 302 from athumb drive or other portable memory device, or may access the recoverypackage 302 from remote storage (e.g., cloud storage) using thecomputing device 356 a. For instance, where an instance of theautomation module 308 is stored along with the recovery package 302 onthe media 303, the user may install the automation module 308 on thecomputing device 356 a or another computing device at the recovery site,and then invoke a selected automation package 302 via GUI of theautomation module 308. In other cases, the computing device used toinvoke the recovery package 302 is not located at the remote site. Forinstance, an employee may invoke the recovery package 302 using acomputing device (not shown) that is in networked communication with,but physically remote from, the computing devices 356 at the recoverysite.

Once the recovery package 302 is invoked, the first computing device 356a begins to execute the recovery tasks 308 to carry out the recoveryprocess. In some embodiments, for example, after the user invokes therecovery package 302, the recovery process completes without furtherhuman involvement. In one configuration, the recovery package 302includes a software module (not shown) that is installed on the firstcomputing device 356 a when the data recovery package 302 is invoked,and the software module manages the execution of the recovery tasks 308.The software module may include a GUI or other user interface thatallows the user to launch the recovery process.

As discussed, in some embodiments, recovery metadata 309 is included inthe recovery copy 320. In some cases, execution of the recovery package302 causes the computing device 356 a to access the storage device(s)322 to retrieve the recovery metadata 326. As discussed, the recoverymetadata 326 includes configuration data usable to reconstruct portionsof the data storage system 304. For instance, the recovery metadata 326in one embodiment includes an index, database, or other data structureincluding information related to the configuration of the first datastorage system 304. Such data can include, without limitation, thenumber of the different types of components 307 in the first datastorage system 304, configuration parameters related one or more of theindividual components 307, the topology and/or connectivity of thecomponents with respect to one another, and the like. Such informationcan be included for any of the components in the first data storagesystem 304, including the clients, data agents, secondary storagecomputing devices, media agents, computing devices, storage devices, orother components, for example. Recovery metadata 326 is discussed infurther detail with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5.

As discussed, in other embodiments, the recovery copy 320 may notinclude recovery metadata, or may include only a portion of the recoverymetadata. In such cases, the first computing device 356 a may accessrecovery metadata 309 included in the recovery package 302 instead of,or in addition to, accessing the recovery metadata 326 contained in therecovery copy 320.

The first computing device 356 a continues to execute the pre-configureddata recovery tasks 308 that define the recovery workflow. In theillustrated embodiment, referring now to FIG. 3C, execution of the datarecovery package 302 causes the first computing device 356 a atoperational step 5A to replicate the components of the first datastorage system 304 onto the second set of computer hardware devices 356.For instance, the first computing device 356 a installs replicatedversions 357 a-357 e of the storage manager, data agent A, data agent B,media agent A and media agent B 307 a-307 e on the computing devices 356a-356 e in the second set of computer hardware devices 356. In someembodiments, the first computing device 356 a utilizes the recoverymetadata 326 accessed from the recovery copy 320 in installing and/orconfiguring the replicated versions 357 a-357 e of the variouscomponents. In other embodiments, the first computing device 356 autilizes the recovery metadata 309 included in the recovery package 302instead of, or in addition to, the recovery metadata 326 from therecovery copy 320. While the first computing device 356 a in theillustrated embodiment is used to both execute the recovery package 302and host the storage manager′ 357 a, separate computing devices can beused in other embodiments.

The recovery package 302 may define additional steps in recovering thedata storage environment. For instance, operating system configurationinformation for one or more of the computing devices 306 a-306 e in thefirst set of computer hardware devices 306 may be included in therecovery metadata. This operating system configuration information maybe replicated to one or more of the computing devices 357 a-357 e in thesecond set of computer hardware devices 356, or otherwise utilized inthe recovery process. In one embodiment, Windows Registry informationfrom the computing device 306 a that hosts the storage manager 307 a inthe first data storage environment is copied to the computing device 356a that hosts the storage manager′ 357 a in the recovered data storageenvironment 358. In some embodiments, other types of programs can beinstalled on one or more of the computing devices 357 a-357 e. Forinstance, the recovery package 302 may specify that a database program(e.g., SQL) be installed on one or more of the computing devices 357a-357 e. In some embodiments, the recovery package 302 includes tasksfor installing a file system on the one or more of the computing devices357 a-357 e. And the recovery package 302 can also include tasks forrestore data to the installed components. For instance, the recoverypackage 302 can include tasks for restoring files and/or directories tothe installed file system, or for restoring data to the installeddatabase program. Whatever the type of data, the tasks for restoring thedata may cause one or more computing devices 357 a-357 e at the recoverysite to access the recovery data 324 from the recovery copy stored onthe storage device(s) 322.

At operational step 5B, recovery data 324 included in the recovery copy320 is automatically restored to the recovery site. For instance,depending on the embodiment, one or more of the recovery tasks 308 inthe recovery package 302 may cause the recovery data 324 or a portionthereof be copied to the data storage devices 356 f, 356 g that are incommunication with the clients 356 b, 356 c to restore primaryproduction data. Moreover, the recovery data 324 or a portion thereofcan also be copied to storage devices 356 h, 356 i that are incommunication with the media agents 357 d, 357 e, e.g., as secondarycopies.

FIG. 4 shows example recovery metadata 400, which can include, withoutlimitation, storage system configuration parameters 402, operatingsystem data 406, and network configuration parameters 408.

As discussed, the storage system configuration parameters 402 caninclude information associated with the components in the source datastorage system 304 (e.g., the number and type of the components,configuration parameters for one or more of the components, topology orconnectivity of the components, etc.). In one embodiment, a database(e.g., a Microsoft SQL Server database) maintains this information.Referring to FIGS. 3A-3C again, the database in one embodiment is copiedto the storage device 322 for inclusion in the recovery metadata 326associated with the recovery copy 320.

Information related to the configuration of the source data storagesystem 304 may be embedded in operating system level informationassociated with one or more of the computing devices 306 a-306 e in thesource data storage system 304. As such, the recovery metadata 400 canfurther include certain operating system data related to at least one ofthe computing devices 306 a-306 e. In one embodiment, the WindowsRegistry database for one or more of the computing devices 306 a-306 e,such as the computing device 306 a on which the storage manger 307 aresides, is included in the recovery metadata 400. In other embodiments,such as where Linux or Unix are used, the operating system data 406 caninclude plain text files with operating system configurationinformation.

In certain embodiments, such as where a firewall exists between certaincomponents in the source data storage system, the recovery metadata 400can further include network configuration parameters 408. For instance,referring to FIGS. 3A-3C again, in certain configurations a firewallexists between one or more of the client computing devices 306 b,306 cand the storage manager computing device 306 a, or between one or moreof the media agent computing devices 306 d, 306 e and the storagemanager computing device 306 a. In such cases, the network configurationparameters 308 can include firewall configuration files from the sourcedata storage system 304. The firewall configuration files may bereplicated to the destination data storage system 358 during as part ofthe restore process in order to reconstruct the network configuration ofthe source data storage system 304.

FIG. 5 shows an example recovery automation package 500. The recoveryautomation package includes a set of recovery tasks or commands 502,which can be arranged in order of execution. The commands 502 caninclude code segments or executable instructions and, when executed inorder, are configured to perform the recovery process to completion inan automated fashion, e.g., without human intervention. The automationpackage 500 can further include recovery metadata 504, which can includeany of the recovery metadata described herein. While shown separatelyfrom the recovery tasks 502, the recovery metadata can be integratedwith or otherwise associated with certain commands. For instance,recovery metadata may be used as parameters for or inputs to certaincommands.

While the hypothetical situation described with respect to FIGS. 3A-3Cinvolves an actual disaster or other event impairing the source datastorage system 304, similar automated recovery techniques could be usedfor testing or compliance purposes, where no such event actuallyoccurred.

In addition, the example described with respect to FIGS. 3A-3C involvesrecovering data and/or replicating the source data storage system 304 toa separate, remote recovery site, onto separate computer hardware 356.However, in some other scenarios, a similar automated recovery techniquecan be used to restore data to the source data storage system 304, or torebuild portions of the source data storage system 304 on one or more ofthe first computer hardware devices 306. For instance, one or more ofthe components 307 in the first data storage system 304 may becomecorrupted, while the corresponding underlying computing device is stilloperational. In such a case, the recovery package may implement there-installation of the corrupted component on the original computingdevice. Moreover, copies of production data (e.g., primary or secondarycopies of production data) in the first data storage system 304 maybecome corrupted, while the underlying storage media remains operationalor repairable. Under these circumstances, the recovery package mayrestore the data to the to the same storage media to replace thecorrupted copies of the data. In yet further scenarios, a subset of oneor more of the hardware devices 306 at the production site are impaired,while the remaining devices remain operational. In such cases, therecovery techniques can be used to selectively recover the source datastorage system 304 to one or more additional hardware devices, leavingthe operational portions of the system 304 intact. The additionalhardware devices can be either local to or remote from the first set ofhardware devices, as desired.

Terminology

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of anyof the algorithms described herein can be performed in a differentsequence, can be added, merged, or left out all together (e.g., not alldescribed acts or events are necessary for the practice of thealgorithms). Moreover, in certain embodiments, acts or events can beperformed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing,interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or onother parallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described herein. Software and other modulesmay reside on servers, workstations, personal computers, computerizedtablets, PDAs, and other devices suitable for the purposes describedherein. Software and other modules may be accessible via local memory,via a network, via a browser, or via other means suitable for thepurposes described herein. Data structures described herein may comprisecomputer files, variables, programming arrays, programming structures,or any electronic information storage schemes or methods, or anycombinations thereof, suitable for the purposes described herein. Userinterface elements described herein may comprise elements from graphicaluser interfaces, command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.

Further, the processing of the various components of the illustratedsystems can be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and othercomputing resources. In addition, two or more components of a system canbe combined into fewer components. Various components of the illustratedsystems can be implemented in one or more virtual machines, rather thanin dedicated computer hardware systems. Likewise, the data repositoriesshown can represent physical and/or logical data storage, including, forexample, storage area networks or other distributed storage systems.Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between the componentsshown represent possible paths of data flow, rather than actualconnections between hardware. While some examples of possibleconnections are shown, any of the subset of the components shown cancommunicate with any other subset of components in variousimplementations.

Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processorof a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such thatthe instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer orother programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the acts specified in the flow chart and/or block diagramblock or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatusto cause a series of operations to be performed on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process suchthat the instructions which execute on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus provide steps for implementing the acts specifiedin the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments havebeen presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit thescope of the disclosure. Indeed, the novel methods and systems describedherein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, variousomissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the describedmethods and systems may be made without departing from the spirit of thedisclosure. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intendedto cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope andspirit of the disclosure.

1.-20. (canceled)
 21. A method of automating recovery of a networkeddata storage environment, the method comprising: accessing, using afirst computing device that is remote from a second computing device, anautomated data recovery package located in storage associated with thesecond computing device, the automated data recovery package generatedby the second computing device; and executing the automated datarecovery package using the first computing device, wherein saidexecuting the automated data recovery package comprises: installing onat least one computing device of a first set of computer hardwaredevices a first secondary storage controller corresponding to a secondsecondary storage controller that was installed on at least onecomputing device of a second set of computer hardware devices, whereinthe first secondary storage controller is configured to manage datastorage operations between at least one client computing device of thefirst set of computer hardware devices and at least one secondarystorage device of the first set of computer hardware devices, andcopying at least a portion of content of a data store associated withthe second set of computer hardware devices to one or more storagedevices associated with the first set of computer hardware devices, theportion of content including a copy of data that was generated by atleast one application executing on a client computing device of thesecond set of computer hardware devices.
 22. The method of claim 21,wherein the first set of computer hardware devices are remote from thesecond set of computer hardware devices.
 23. The method of claim 21,wherein said executing the automated data recovery package is executedto completion without human intervention.
 24. The method of claim 21,wherein the automated data recovery package includes configurationparameters associated with the second secondary storage controller, andwherein the configuration parameters are utilized to automaticallyconfigure the first secondary storage controller.
 25. The method ofclaim 21, wherein a copy of configuration parameters associated with thesecond secondary storage controller are stored remotely from the secondset of computer hardware devices, and wherein said executing theautomated data recovery package further comprises: accessing the copy ofthe configuration parameters, and automatically configuring the firstsecondary storage controller based at least in part on the copy of theconfiguration parameters.
 26. The method of claim 21, wherein theautomated data recovery package is generated by: accessing a databaseincluding executable versions of a set of available commands; extractingfrom the database executable versions of selected commands from the setof available commands; and assembling the extracted executable versionsto form the automated data recovery package.
 27. The method of claim 26,wherein the automated data recovery package comprises code segments,each of the code segments corresponding to one of the selected commands.28. A computing system, comprising: one or more computer processorsconfigured to: access an automated data recovery package stored onstorage associated with a first computing device, wherein the automateddata recovery package is generated by the first computing device; andexecute the automated data recovery package, wherein execution of theautomated data recovery package causes the one or more computerprocessors to: install on at least one computing device of a first setof computer hardware devices a first secondary storage controllercorresponding to a second secondary storage controller that wasinstalled on at least one computing device of a second set of computerhardware devices, wherein the first secondary storage controller isconfigured to manage data storage operations between at least one clientcomputing device of the first set of computer hardware devices and atleast one secondary storage device of the first set of computer hardwaredevices, and copy at least a portion of content of a data storeassociated with the second set of computer hardware devices to one ormore storage devices associated with the first set of computer hardwaredevices, the portion of content including a copy of data that wasgenerated by at least one application executing on a client computingdevice of the second set of computer hardware devices.
 29. The computersystem of claim 28, wherein the first set of computer hardware devicesare remote from the second set of computer hardware devices.
 30. Thecomputer system of claim 28, wherein the one or more computer processorsare configured to execute the automated data recovery package tocompletion without human intervention.
 31. The computer system of claim28, wherein the automated data recovery package includes configurationparameters associated with the second secondary storage controller, andwherein the execution of the automated data recovery package furthercauses the one or more computer processors to configure the firstsecondary storage controller based at least in part on the configurationparameters.
 32. The computer system of claim 28, wherein a copy ofconfiguration parameters associated with the second secondary storagecontroller are stored remotely from the second set of computer hardwaredevices, and wherein the execution of the automated data recoverypackage, further causes the one or more computer processors to: accessthe copy of the configuration parameters, and automatically configurethe first secondary storage controller based at least in part on thecopy of the configuration parameters.
 33. The computer system of claim28, wherein to generate the automated data recovery package, the firstcomputing device is configured to: access a database includingexecutable versions of a set of available commands; extract from thedatabase executable versions of selected commands from the set ofavailable commands; and assemble the extracted executable versions toform the automated data recovery package.
 34. The computer system ofclaim 33, wherein the automated data recovery package comprises codesegments, each of the code segments corresponding to one of the selectedcommands.
 35. Non-transitory, computer-readable storage mediumcomprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by one ormore computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:access an automated data recovery package stored on storage associatedwith a first computing device, wherein the automated data recoverypackage is generated by the first computing device; and execute theautomated data recovery package, wherein execution of the automated datarecovery package causes the one or more computer processors to: installon at least one computing device of a first set of computer hardwaredevices a first secondary storage controller corresponding to a secondsecondary storage controller that was installed on at least onecomputing device of a second set of computer hardware devices, whereinthe first secondary storage controller is configured to manage datastorage operations between at least one client computing device of thefirst set of computer hardware devices and at least one secondarystorage device of the first set of computer hardware devices, and copyat least a portion of content of a data store associated with the secondset of computer hardware devices to one or more storage devicesassociated with the first set of computer hardware devices, the portionof content including a copy of data that was generated by at least oneapplication executing on a client computing device of the second set ofcomputer hardware devices.
 36. The computer-readable, non-transitorystorage medium of claim 35, wherein the first set of computer hardwaredevices are remote from the second set of computer hardware devices. 37.The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 35,wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the one or morecomputer processors to execute the automated data recovery package tocompletion without human intervention.
 38. The computer-readable,non-transitory storage medium of claim 35, wherein the automated datarecovery package includes configuration parameters associated with thesecond secondary storage controller, and wherein the execution of theautomated data recovery package, further causes the one or more computerprocessors to configure the first secondary storage controller based atleast in part on the configuration parameters.
 39. Thecomputer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 35, wherein acopy of configuration parameters associated with the second secondarystorage controller are stored remotely from the second set of computerhardware devices, and wherein the execution of the automated datarecovery package, further causes the one or more computer processors to:access the copy of the configuration parameters, and automaticallyconfigure the first secondary storage controller based at least in parton the copy of the configuration parameters.
 40. The computer-readable,non-transitory storage medium of claim 35, wherein the automated datarecovery package comprises code segments.